It’s pretty easy to predict when the next horrendously serious change in DUI legislation will occur. Basically, whenever a headline reads “killed by drunk driver,” some legislator will grab the headline and run to the nearest TV camera. Maybe I’m an anomaly, but the few times press has contacted me to comment on a recent case I have shied away. It just seems, well, unseemly. Too bad legislators don’t have the same aversion to the media as I do.

So I cannot say that the subject of this Fort Worth Star Telegram article surprises me. In summation, a recent death by DWI committed by a twice-convicted drunk driver prompted a Texas lawmaker to push for permanent DL revocation upon a second DWI conviction. Also included would be turning driving while suspended violations into misdemeanors (already that way in Kansas), and a few other tweaks in the Texas traffic code as relates to DWIs and DWSs.

Hence, the solution to stopping the heinous crime of DWI is to create more suspended license crimes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, people with suspended DLs will still drive. The only thing this legislator will create are more underemployed poor people who will never be able to overcome the obstacles their drinking has caused.

But that’s not the point of this post. Simply put, Kansas DUI offenders just don’t get it. When a potential client comes into my office tearful and tormented at what will happen to him or her with yet another DUI conviction (and then walk out of the office huffing and puffing when I tell him how bad his case looks), and then can’t explain why he or she kept drinking and driving even after two prior DUI convictions, I can truly say such a person is denser than lead (which can’t even be penetrated by X-rays). And this denseness will only lead to more tweaks in DUI laws to the point where such a scarlet letter just might lead one straight to the gallows.

To say that Kansas drunk drivers have it easy is a bit of an understatement. Drunk drivers who kill in Texas are lucky to get off with 10 years prison. In Kansas, probation is possible (though unlikely), with prison of 3.8 years per dead body. But this will not last. That publicity hound of a legislator in Texas is giving us a glimpse of where our laws are likely headed in the next few years, that is if the typically arrogant, rebellious attitude of Kansas drunk drivers continues. Without a dead body, the most time any drunk driver faces in Kansas is 12 months in county jail. That’s the case with 2nd, 3rd, 4th…and to infinity (even for multiple felony convictions!!!). As for the permanent DL revocation, that doesn’t happen in Kansas until the 5th lifetime occurrence. That’s an awful lot of grace for a crime that can lead to such horrific consequences.

Wake up Kansas drunks! If you must drink, do so at home, or take a taxi when leaving the bar. If you continue to keep up your drunk driving ways, you will screw things up for the DUI offenders that are truly the rule (as in they don’t drink and drive after making one big mistake). Here’s a thought. Read and memorize Romans 13:1-7:

Let every person p be subject to the governing authorities. For q there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you r will receive his approval, 4 for s he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, t an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also u for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 v Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

Thus, respect the law. Don’t drink and drive for the simple reason that it is illegal. The sword of justice will not smash down on your head (or need to smash down on others hard heads even harder) if you will simply choose to not break the law.