'The send lock is useful to classes that interact with us at a deep level
because it\'s used to lock :func:`stem.socket.ControlSocket.connect` /
:func:`stem.socket.ControlSocket.close`, and by extension our
:func:`stem.socket.ControlSocket.is_alive` state changes.
:returns: **threading.RLock** that governs sending messages to our socket
and state changes'

def _get_send_lock(self):

    return self._send_lock
