Mark Glaze, 51, was once referred as 'the face of the gun control movement' by the WSJ after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012
A campaigner credited with helping found the modern gun control movement has killed himself in jail while being held on a DUI charge.
Mark Glaze died last month while being held at Lackawanna County Prison in Pennsylvania, with the 51 year-old's death announced in a New York Times story published Sunday.
Glaze, a father-of-one, is said to have been suffering from addiction and severe depression in the period leading up to his arrest and death.
'As we celebrate the life of our beloved Mark, we would be remiss not to mention his harrowing struggle with alcohol, depression, and anxiety,' a Facebook statement said.
'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. … We pray that by being open about Mark's cause of death, something positive may emerge from our devastating loss.'
Glaze, 51, was being held at Lackawanna County Prison after his arrest on September 9th for fleeing the scene of a car accident in Dunmore, Pennsylvania. Police charged him with DUI, accidents involving deaths or personal injury, abandoning a vehicle on the highway and careless driving, according to court documents.
Glaze qualified as a lawyer, and joined campaign group Mayors Against Guns in 2011 as a consultant, working alongside luminaries including Michael Bloomberg.
His campaigning intensified in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Massacre, which saw 20 kids and six adults shot dead at a Connecticut elementary school. The gun safety advocate was gay, and drew inspiration for the battle to overturn the Supreme Court ban on same-sex marriage during his gun safety efforts.
As the executive director of Everytown for Gun Safety (pictured), he took on the National Rifle Association and helped make gun violence a winning issue
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.
He was credited for inspiring protests against and boycotts of the NRA, which have been credited for plunging the organization into ongoing chaos.
Highlighting a long career of public service, Glaze served as an advisor to the Commission on Federal Election Reform led by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker.
He also worked as a consultant for the Raben Group, a D.C.-based public
