Dupage Policy Journal

Safe Suburbs USA founder Kevin Coyne is calling out state Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Chicago) for what he sees as a double standard on conceal carry gun possession.

Coyne said he’d be surprised if Lightford changes her stance on gun control following her late December carjacking.

“Should we really be surprised that an Illinois elected official believes that her family should be able to carry a firearm for protection but yours should not have this same privilege?” Coyne told DuPage Policy Journal. “Lightford wants to protect her family from the crime that her party has let spiral out of control, but your family should be left unarmed in the face of it.”

Lightford praised the Illinois Concealed Carry Law, which she voted against in 2013, after her husband shot at the carjackers, dispersing them after they had separated the couple.

Lightford similarly has opposed a bill that would allow anyone legally allowed to have a firearm the right to concealed carry.

Her brush with crime comes as Chicago has recorded the most murders in a year since 1996. 2021’s murder tally of 834 is 35 percent higher than in 2019.

Coyne and others have blamed the rampant criminality on lax prosecution by Democratic district attorneys.

“The failure of her leadership and others in Springfield has gone beyond merely punishing our state, our residents, and our business financially through unparalleled levels of taxation and corruption,”Coyne said. “Our leaders now place the physical safety of our families in jeopardy through failed approaches to crime while they do everything possible to remove reasonable means of protection that our families should have the right to enjoy. The absurdity of it all is hard to comprehend.”  

Others have suggested Lightford should be more amenable to changing her policy given the near death experience, even going so far as to say it would be "reprehensible" for her not to consider a policy change. 

Critics have said lax prosecution standards have led to blantant criminality.