Lois Mock, who managed project on gun violence research for the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice, died on March 30 at 82. Mock was a federal employee for 35 years, retiring in 2007. NIJ said she "oversaw some of NIJ’s most significant research portfolios, including firearms violence, Project Safe Neighborhoods, and white collar crime. Lois also helped the nation to begin thinking of gun violence as a public health issue. Her impact on the criminal justice research community was considerable. She is remembered by her former colleagues as thoughtful, passionate, and tenacious."
NIJ Director Nancy La Vigne called Mock "a fierce and tenacious advocate for research." Sally Hillsman, a former NIJ deputy director, has written that Mock "guided many years of thoughtful, productive and very careful work that included a congressionally mandated evaluation of the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994."