diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/GUIDELINES.md b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/GUIDELINES.md
index 34532cbf155..e1db9ef2997 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/GUIDELINES.md
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/GUIDELINES.md
@@ -285,7 +285,7 @@ Pass this function a list of security group names or combination of security gro
 return a list of IDs.  You should also pass the VPC ID if known because security group names are not necessarily unique
 across VPCs.
 
-### sort_json_policy_dict
+#### sort_json_policy_dict
 
 Pass any JSON policy dict to this function in order to sort any list contained therein. This is useful
 because AWS rarely return lists in the same order that they were submitted so without this function, comparison
diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/ec2_lc.py b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/ec2_lc.py
index 9d8e6c4f900..cdff79bc664 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/ec2_lc.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/ec2_lc.py
@@ -59,8 +59,8 @@ options:
     required: false
   security_groups:
     description:
-      - A list of security groups to apply to the instances. For VPC instances, specify security group IDs. For EC2-Classic, specify either security
-        group names or IDs.
+      - A list of security groups to apply to the instances. Since version 2.4 you can specify either security group names or IDs or a mix.  Previous to 2.4,
+        for VPC instances, specify security group IDs and for EC2-Classic, specify either security group names or IDs.
     required: false
   volumes:
     description:
@@ -150,7 +150,8 @@ EXAMPLES = '''
 import traceback
 
 from ansible.module_utils.basic import *
-from ansible.module_utils.ec2 import *
+from ansible.module_utils.ec2 import ec2_argument_spec, ec2_connect, connect_to_aws, \
+    get_ec2_security_group_ids_from_names, get_aws_connection_info, AnsibleAWSError
 
 try:
     from boto.ec2.blockdevicemapping import BlockDeviceType, BlockDeviceMapping
@@ -188,7 +189,10 @@ def create_launch_config(connection, module):
     name = module.params.get('name')
     image_id = module.params.get('image_id')
     key_name = module.params.get('key_name')
-    security_groups = module.params['security_groups']
+    try:
+        security_groups = get_ec2_security_group_ids_from_names(module.params.get('security_groups'), ec2_connect(module), vpc_id=None, boto3=False)
+    except ValueError as e:
+        module.fail_json(msg=str(e))
     user_data = module.params.get('user_data')
     user_data_path = module.params.get('user_data_path')
     volumes = module.params['volumes']