It's scary to go dress shopping in Illinois these days. After all, it has been 11 weeks, and still no arrest has been made in the tragic Tinley Park Lane Bryant store massacre. All we know is that the perpetrator was attempting to rob the Brookside Marketplace clothing store on a cold Saturday morning. He forced six women into the store's back room, tied them up and made them lay on the floor. Lying there, the heroic store manager secretly dialed 911 for help. Audio tapes of the 911 call indicate the robber heard the operator's voice, panicked and began shooting each defenseless victim in the back of the head.

After shooting all six, the killer escaped through the store's back door, just as the 911 operator alerted a Tinley Park police officer in an adjoining parking lot. Before the officer could respond, the devastation had taken place. Just yards away from him, five women were killed, and one, shot in the neck instead of the head, lay critically wounded.

To this day, a dangerous man with nothing to lose from killing again remains on the loose.

And south suburban women remain defenseless.

Illinois women are some of the few in America banned by law from protecting themselves. Forty-eight other states allow their citizens to carry concealed firearms.

And it's even more scary in Chicago. There, law-abiding women are completely defenseless, even within their homes. Chicago women are not allowed to register handguns and keep them in their homes for protection against intruders.

On top of that, the state has an active moratorium on the death penalty.

If you were a cold-blooded murderer, where would you go to find your next victims?

Thankfully, there are a few sane women in public policy who understand how important self-protection is and how crucial our Bill of Rights' Second Amendment is.

This week in the Illinois House, nine women defended the constitutional right to bear arms against gun control advocate state Rep. Harry Osterman's (D-Chicago) attempt to increase restrictions on law-abiding gun owners.

Along with 49 others, those nine state representatives, including seven Republicans - Suzie Bassi, Patti Bellock, Sandy Cole, Renee Kosel, JoAnn Osmond, Sandy Pihos and Jil Tracy - and two Democrats - Lisa Dugan and Careen Gordon - voted to stop yet another attempt by Osterman to undermine a cherished civil liberty.

Those Constitution-protecting lawmakers knew what we all should: Even before Osterman's latest legislative effort to restrict the legal transfer of handguns between private parties, Illinois' lack of confidence in its citizens to legally bear arms was unique.

Ours is the only state that requires a firearm owner's identification card.

In order to obtain a FOID card to qualify for gun ownership, a person's criminal or mental health history must be checked by state police. Only after the FOID card is issued may guns be purchased legally through a registered gun shop. Then, those legally purchased firearms cannot be transported unless they are broken down or in a case and unloaded. No other state in the union has such harsh restrictions on firearms.

So with these tough gun laws, wouldn't you guess that Illinois is one of the safest, least violent states in the union? To the contrary, 48 states are safer than Illinois, which ranks second in gun-related crimes.

Gang-bangers and criminals don't register firearms. They don't apply for a FOID card. They laugh as more and more laws are passed. For their causes, more gun control means more defenseless victims.

Obviously, something other than tougher gun laws is what will make Illinois safer.

Perhaps if citizens were granted the right to protect themselves from illegal gun-toters, Illinois women like those shopping at Lane Bryant that February morning still would be alive.

Installing more video surveillance cameras isn't the answer. All they do is record what happened during the travesty with hopes of punishing the culprit at a later time. More police visibly present could be intimidating, but a Tinley Park police officer was on patrol in the Brookside Marketplace parking lot that day. As close as he was, calling 911 did not save five lives.

If one of those women had been trained and legally carried protection, things could have turned out dramatically different. Five families would not have been devastated by a fool desperate for $200.

Lane Bryant issued a $50,000 reward for the capture of the killer, and billboards with the killer's sketch remain posted in the area, publicizing the fact that area law enforcement need help to find a dangerous man on the loose who likely would not hesitate to kill again.

All the police need to do is wait. If this vicious killer decides he needs $200 again, he'll come back to Illinois because here, he knows, women in dress stores are defenseless. After all, if he's caught, he'll not be put to death, even if he kills five more within our state's borders.

Maybe the new state border sign should say, "Welcome to the liberal Land of Lincoln, where only the innocent and law-abiding live in fear."

Fran Eaton is a south suburban resident, a conservative activist in state and national politics and an online journalist. She can be reached at featon@illinoisreview.com.

Link to Article