Gun control advocate dies at 51
Mark Glaze, who was widely considered a founding figure in the modern gun control movement, died Oct. 31 in Scranton, Pa. He was 51.
Erika Soto Lamb, a friend and former colleague at the organization Everytown for Gun Safety, where Glaze was a former executive director, said his death was a suicide. Glaze had been in jail after being arrested on a charge of driving under the influence in September.
Glaze, who was born in Pueblo, was already a veteran political organizer in January 2011 when he joined Mayors Against Illegal Guns, an organization that was founded by Michael Bloomberg of New York and more than a dozen other mayors. He worked for the organization part time, as a consultant on loan from the Raben Group, a public affairs firm.
Gun violence was at the time one of those issues that Washington insiders compared to the weather: something everyone talked about but no one did anything to change. The National Rifle Association controlled the topic, cajoling even moderate Democrats to oppose any effort to regulate firearms.
A decade later, gun violence is a winning issue for many state and local governments, the NRA is in tatters and Congress is increasingly willing to stand up for gun safety — a drastic shift that many attribute to Glaze’s tireless organizing and brilliant strategizing.
“Mark unquestionably was one of the architects of the gun safety movement,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.
The changes happened over several years amid a series of high-profile mass shootings. It started a few days after Glaze joined the organization, when a gunman shot 19 people in a parking lot in Tucson, killing six and injuring 13, including Rep. Gabby Giffords.
Glaze would build from the grassroots and create a permanent pressure campaign on politicians at every level, from the White House to city halls.
“They for a generation have had this field to themselves,” he said of the NRA in a 2013 interview with The Wall Street Journal. “There has really been nothing on the other side in terms of grassroots strength, intensity on most days or support on Election Day.”
He resigned from the Raben Group to work full time for Mayors Against Illegal Guns. He hired dozens of staff members and more than doubled the number of mayors endorsing the organization. He rallied local activists and put pressure on purpleand red-state Democrats, who are often the most responsive to NRA pressure.
“Mark was somebody who could both sit with victims and survivors of gun violence while also operating at the political level and working with legislators to change the politics of the issue,” said Peter Ambler, executive director of Giffords, an anti-gunviolence group created by Giffords.
Glaze, who was gay, took particular inspiration from the movement for samesex marriage, which had for decades pushed for changes at the state and local level before taking on Congress and the Supreme Court.