Published reports in various newspapers including the Daily Mail reported this week that Mark Glaze, a gun control advocate who worked with Mayors Against Guns as a consultant and as executive director of Everytown for Gun Safety, took his own life last month while being held at Pennsylvania’s Lackawanna County Prison on a DUI charge.
The New York Times was first to report the death, based on a Nov. 5 Facebook post detailing his life. Date of death was listed as Oct. 31. Glaze was 51 years old and is survived by a son.
According to the Facebook message from his family, “As we celebrate the life of our beloved Mark, we would be remiss not to mention his harrowing struggle with alcohol, depression, and anxiety. In the last years of his life, Mark actively sought help. He completed several treatment programs, with the hope of finding peace and breaking free of the addictive cycle that caused him to feel so desperately alone and in pain.”
The message also encourages “If you are thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States at 1-800-273-TALK.”
There is no small irony in the fact that over the past six years, Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, championed a suicide prevention program in Washington state, even pushing through legislation that funded a project through the University of Washington and Forefront.
Described by the Daily Mail as a “gun safety advocate,” the newspaper recalled Glaze “provided blueprints for then-President Barack Obama’s proposed reforms, which sought to ban assault weapons and expand background checks. But the bill was gradually killed by pressure from Democrat and Republican senators who feared upsetting the National Rifle Association.”
But it was not just the NRA opposing the proposed ban, it was millions of gun owners—many belonging to other organizations such as SAF, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Gun Owners of America and numerous state-level activist groups—who fought the Obama gun ban effort.
Glaze became Everytown’s executive director in 2014. As his prominence grew in the gun prohibition movement, he would note his father was an NRA member and operated a gun store in Colorado, where Glaze grew up.
In addition to the New York Times, Glaze is also being remembered by Mother Jones and The Independent.
The Daily Mail said Glaze had been held at Lackawanna following his arrest back on Sept. 9 “for fleeing the scene of a car accident in Dunmore, Pennsylvania.” He was charged with DUI, and in connection with abandoning a vehicle on the highway and careless driving.
