Note: The deadline for students to enter our 2024 National High School Essay Contest was April 20. The contest is now closed to new entries. Return to this page in late May to read the winning essays. Americans Against Gun Violence is pleased to announce that our 2024 National High School Essay Contest is now open for student entries. We'll be awarding at least $15,000 in total scholarships again this year distributed among 12 winners, [...]

Americans Against Gun Violence congratulates the winners of our 2023 National High School Essay Contest. To enter this year’s contest, students were asked to submit an essay of 500 words or fewer in response to the following prompt, which was chosen based in part on input from some of our past essay contest winners: “Describe your thoughts about lockdown drills conducted in response to the threat of shootings on American school campuses.” We received over [...]

 Essay Topic To enter the 2023 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest, students must submit an original essay of 500 words or fewer in response to the following prompt: “Describe your thoughts about lockdown drills conducted in response to the threat of shootings on American school campuses.”  The essay contest prompt is intentionally open-ended. Students may write about any aspect of lockdown drills and the threat of school shootings that they feel [...]

Americans Against Gun Violence is pleased to announce the winners of our 2022 National High School Essay Contest, which was open to all U.S. high school students. To enter the contest, students were required to submit an original essay of 500 words or fewer by April 16, 2022, describing their thoughts about the following statement made by the late Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger during an interview on the PBS News Hour on December 16, [...]

The 2022 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest Is Now Closed for New Submissions from U.S. High School Students    Note: Deadline to enter the contest was 11:59 PM on Saturday, April 16, 2022. Return to this page after May 16 to read the winning essays in this year's contest.     Essay Topic To enter the 2022 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest, students must submit an original [...]

Americans Against Gun Violence is pleased to announce the winners of our 2021 National High School Essay Contest. To enter the contest, which was open to all high school students in the United States and its territories, students were required to submit an essay of 500 words or fewer in response to the following prompt: “Describe the effect on American youth of the confluence of our country’s longstanding gun violence epidemic with the current Covid-19 [...]

The 2021 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest is now closed to new submissions, and the winners have been chosen. We're in the process of contacting the winners, and we'll be posting the winning essays in the near future. A total of $15,000 will be awarded to the 12 top winners, with $3,000 for first place, $2,5oo for second place, $2,000 for third place, $1,000 each for 4th through 10th place, and [...]

Americans Against Gun Violence is please to announce that our 2020 National High School Essay Contest is now open to all U.S. High School Students. A total of $15,000 will be awarded to twelve winners. The deadline for students to enter is April 18, 2020. See below for full contest details and the link to the online entry form.   Essay Topic To enter the 2020 Americans Against Gun Violence National High School Essay Contest, [...]