Lock Arms for Life Blog
Progress with safety legislation
I’ve been working this session on safety bills and have seen the work make some advances in the law. The Texas Tribune published a great gun safety article that included this portion about the legislative work of Lock Arms for Life. There has been progress for some...
Tribune reports on our Capitol work
Have you seen the Texas Tribune article featuring Lock Arms for Life? If not, we’ve posted it here. After years of little progress, Texas gun control and safety advocates see some small openings for dialogue at the Capitol I always look forward to reporters reaching...
Doctor takes shot at eliminating accidents
In an article in Fort Worth, Dr. Daniel Guzman, a pediatrician in Ft. Worth at Cook Children’s Medical Center, sees gun safety in the same light as Lock Arms for Life. The article, The Doctor Who’s Taking His Best Shot at Eliminating Gun-Related Accidents by Brian...
A Bag of Guns
Now that people know I’ve experienced a loss, they seek me out, since I have a platform to share my message of safety. Tony Switzer, the author of the story below, is a veteran and has been a volunteer for my organization. His message is simple: Don’t carry loaded...
Doubts about whether guns stop bad guys
By Louis Wichers We are all familiar with slogans such as State Farm’s “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” This slogan is repeated multiple times in multiple ads with the same character wearing a red polo shirt with State Farm symbol on it. One of my favorite...
Use the Force for Gun Safety
Don’t underestimate the force of gun safety. I feel like I’m in a Star Wars movie, joining forces to create a New Republic of gun safety. My groups weren’t frightened to join the rebellion, though. Just look around Austin and you will see you’re surrounded by the...
Reaching Out to Our Spanish Community
We need to focus not only on our English-speaking communities, but also on our Spanish speakers. I get requests from many media outlets — the news website Reform Austin, Spectrum News, and Fox7Austin. But I also get requests from Spanish media platforms like...
Who’s At Fault?
Who’s at fault when a gun accidentally kills someone? I asked that question too in my first book, At Close Range. My son Jon died in freak gun accident at a party in 2009. His story didn’t make national news. I recall after his death cutting out the small burb in the...
Teaching at tables is my target
Ever since Jon died, sharing the message about gun safety has become personal. I never wanted to be an activist, and I’m not certain that I am one. If my story saves one person from death, then I’ve hit my target. My target is responsibility. We can all be...
APD, DPS shine the safety light on Lock Arms
We're everywhere with our gun safety message these days. APD, Texas DPS, social media, and text messaging. Austin Public Health is spreading the word to save lives. They're saturating the markets to save lives. The messages are in English and Spanish for maximum...
Gun safety helps suicide prevention month
September is National Suicide Prevention month. Unless we can treat mental health with compassion and bravery every week, one commemorative month on the calendar won’t make enough of a difference to save the lives that end in suicide. Guns play an extra-lethal role in...
Teamwork, Texas Schools, and Gun Safety
The pandemic might be keeping us from hosting in-person events, but not from doing our work. First off, during July Lock Arms partnered with Austin Public Health to bring safe storage messaging to parents in the Austin Independent School district. We sponsored the...
SheKnows spreads the word on talking about gun safety
The parenting website SheKnows helped us spread the word about gun safety in a recent article. On the SheKnows blog, Isobella Jade wrote about Why It’s Never Too Early to Start Teaching Your Kids About Gun Safety. Her article explains why parents are the earliest...
Activistas piden que no se apruebe medida que permitiría a los texanos portar armas sin licencia
La organización Lock Arms for Life indicó que esta medida permitiría a cualquiera que pueda portar un arma en Texas sin conocer las leyes o incluso cómo disparar una pistola. www.univision.com
NSSF Shooting Sports aims at safety target
My mission to make gun ownership safer for everyone has lots of help. I was surprised recently to see that the National Shooting Sports Foundation has updated its fine safety guide. Things like gun safes, separate storage, or the locking of guns when not in use are...
New reviews point the way to the next book
My book reviews are becoming a great resource for my gun safety mission. One reviewer praised me by saying the book is "an absolutely heartbreaking account of one mother’s struggle to navigate the unspeakable grief of losing a child and to break down the brick walls...
New book reviews are on target
“Guns up y’all!” In case you don’t know what that slogan means — it's the Texas Tech University student and alumni greeting. Today it's my greeting to you. Why? Because Texas Tech is my publisher and they've sent my book At Close Range to a team of expert book...
Lock Arms for Life earns SafeKids Coalition Champion award
Lock Arms for Life kicked off its 2021 safety work with a splash this week, receiving the news that Austin’s Safe Kids Coalition named Lock Arms as its 2020 Coalition Champion Award. Founding director Leesa Ross accepted the honor in a virtual meeting, saying that the...
A Mother’s Story: Why We Need Lethal Violence Protective Orders
A Mother’s Story: Why We Need Lethal Violence Protective Orders By Leslie Ervin My son Lex started buying guns on his 18th birthday. He was diagnosed with Autism when he was eight, and in his teens became increasingly reclusive and isolated. Lex refused to be...
Raising Awareness on Injury Prevention Day
I wrote this as an Op-Ed for the Austin American Statesman, even making a few follow up calls to an editor. I checked the paper today and couldn't find the article. So, not wanting to waste the opportunity to talk about an important safety event, here's the article....
Texas DPS launches “Keep ‘Em Safe” Gun Safety Campaign
As reported by ISOBELLA HARKRIDER on the ReformAustin.org website “Jon had plans for his future …,” his mother, Leesa Ross, says in a new ad campaign on iHeart radio from the Texas Department of Public Safety. In the ad, Ross talks about the day her college-age son...
Genie makes safety magic at Wiley’s Gun Shop
Last weekend my mother-in-law came for a visit. She’s in her eighties and lives in Tyler, Texas. Genie doesn’t like to drive alone anymore so she brought her friend Regina with her. She also gets nervous about driving through Austin, so Randy and I met them at a...
Safety gets new spotlight from Bright by Text
I've met several milestones in the recent months with Lock Arms for Life. I've incorporated, filed for nonprofit status, and registered my trademark. I also approved a new site plan for my website. Those are just the internal things, though. Lock Arms has been hard at...
Staying Safe
A few weeks ago I was interviewed for an article in the Reform Austin News. This is a tough time we live in and staying safe seems to be the trending message. While we practice safety for a pandemic we must not forget about other safety habits. Gun tragedies happen...
Book sales down, gun sales up
I've learned that launching a book in the middle of a pandemic isn't going to be easy. My publishing team is working from home with no access to the things on their office computers. Amazon has put book orders on the back-burner, marketing budgets have shrunk, and...
Austin turns out to support Lock Arms for Life
Over the long holiday weekend I attended two events. First, on Saturday I was at the Women's MarchATX2020 on the Capitol grounds talking to crowds about gun safety. Then, that following Monday you could find me at the Martin Luther King Celebration chatting up those...
Texas permits weapons group to control gun safety money
Taxpayer-funded gun locks are free to Texans — unless they have the wrong ‘political agenda’ San Antonio Express-News By Allie Morris AUSTIN — Eight years after her son died from an accidental shooting in 2009, Leesa Ross began preaching safe firearm storage at...
Gun Locks Part 2: Just one at a time
Last time out, I learned that Austin police are permitting a shooting sports foundation to control the distribution of gun locks. The National Shooting Sports Foundation is in charge, according to APD policy. But the governor has said all Texas citizens can get gun...
Austin Police are off target on Gun Lock Safety
The police officer didn't have much time for her call to me, even though she was the one who called. That's how calls can go when they prevent things from happening. She was standing in the way of safety, though, letting Austin police policy prevent guns from being...
Longhorns everywhere love safety
All around the UT campus, I found support for gun safety this week. High schoolers at AISD Back the Future event took free t-shirts, pens and safety swag while they pledged responsibility for firearms in their lives. Bevo strutted my shirt at the National Night Out on...