What is Lock Arms for Life?
Based on her own family tragedy, Leesa Ross is out to change the narrative about firearms. Leesa lost her oldest son to a senseless handgun accident in 2009. Since then, she has been utterly committed to finding a way to prevent gun accidents from injuring or killing unintended victims.
What makes Leesa’s call for change different is that she and her family are firearms enthusiasts. They are not against legally owned rifles and handguns. What she’s against is irresponsible and unsafe storage. That is why she has launched the initiative Lock Arms for Life. When not in use, firearms should be safely stored for everyone’s safety. The Lock Arms for Life campaign took off in an evening at the University of Texas SafeHorns event. Hundreds of college students and their friends were there to learn how to make their campuses safer.
Your college campus, church group, community center or high school can host a Lock Arms for Life event. Leesa is available for speaking at Texas colleges and universities, appearing at summits around public health and safety like those organized by hospitals, as well as other events. Contact Leesa to schedule an appearance and get your Lock Arms for Life shirts as part of the day.
Why not join Leesa in supporting the Second Amendment as well as securing guns for safety? We can save lives together. Make responsibility an essential part of ownership.
Leesa Ross
Coming in 2020:
At Close Range
A Memoir of Tragedy and Advocacy
By Leesa Ross
About At Close Range
Owning a gun is more than a right. It’s a responsibility that demands safety awareness. That awareness must embrace both love and safety. You can always give one, but never be completely certain about the other.
I want this book to influence everyday firearm storage practices. By showing the advocacy through the story of a family, At Close Range can lead families to adopt safer ownership and practices. Even a tragic death from a gun accident, like the one in my family, can propel positive advocacy — and taking action is the best way to make a preventable death count for something that can save the lives of others.
I want firearm storage talks to become common among owners of guns, as well as families and friends. The lessons about responsible ownership should be taught in schools, in churches, and at dinner tables. Accountability about ownership should be as essential as ammunition for a weapon. Guns protect lives, and so does gun safety. Owning a handgun for protection means that those guns are more likely to be stored loaded — so safer practices are crucial to unintended use and accidental deaths.
We can leave a legacy to our younger generations with safety practices that are wired directly into gun ownership.
—Leesa Ross
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