Should Drunk Driving Be Legal?

[Anti Federalist]

It should be non-criminal. As posited in the related thread, it is not a matter of how much alcohol, but how much impairment. Some people can slug down a pint of Wild Turkey and drive safely. On the other hand, my wife so much as enters a room that has a bottle of beer in the fridge and she passes out drunk within seconds. Yes, my wife in fact is the cheapest date on the planet.

Rather than wrecking people's lives over this, why not toss them in the drunk tank over night as used to be customary?

We are so focused and hell-bent upon hurting those who offend us that what is basically become a culture of bile and vengeance has gone completely off the rails.

Most folks, after having spent their first night in the vomit-laden, pee-soaked, and shit-stinking drunk tank are going to start getting some religion. To those who do not, I doubt they would have anyway. OTOH, if you injure of kill someone while behind the wheel, I am inclined to say that drunkenness should qualify as an aggravating factor.

Meaners.

Joey and Janey Meaner live life with both an eternal chip on their shoulder, and piss down their leg scared, at the same time.

Which makes for a dangerous mix of simultaneously being skittish and belligerent.

 

[DFF]

I'm going with "NO" drinking and driving shouldn't be legal but the penalties should be far less than what they currently are especially in my home state of Texas, where there's many a man and woman doing 20+ years in prison for a 3rd or more drinking and driving charge and are locked up with murderers, rapists, and pedophiles.

Like I suggested in the other DWI thread, treat drinking and driving like an enhanced speeding ticket, with a modest fine and maybe a night in jail. But no needles stabbed in the arm and no absurd prison sentences which end up ruining peoples lives.

 

[ClydeCoulter]

I bumped my shoulder on a tree, and I was stone sober...my car has driven me home dead drunk and I slept at the foot of the front door.
No victim, no crime. Preemptive law is a farce.

I have people come to me asking for help after they have been disconnected from service (electricity, water, sewage, etc...) I tell them, you should come ask for help before you get disconnected...but I don't hold it against them that they weren't pre-emptive, since they were still trying to do it on their own...but they do have to pay the recconect penalties before I will help with other peoples money.

 

[mad cow]

I have never caused a wreck or even been involved in a wreck as a licensed driver in 48 years since I got my first license to drive.
There is no question that Denny Hamlin,Jimmie Johnson,Jeff Gordon,Dale Earnhardt Jr. and tens of thousands of others would be more competent drivers than me if I was stone cold sober and they all blew a .20.

My sister caused a wreck when she was fishing around in her lap for a hamburger that she had dropped.She was stone cold sober at the time.

There is really no way to judge who might cause an accident beforehand and unless you want to outlaw every possible cause of a potential accident,this might include fast-food,changing the radio station,talking to your wife in the passenger seat or your kids in the back seat,adjusting the AC and on and on,how about just holding somebody who is responsible for a wreck at fault whatever the causation?

 

[Anti Federalist]

There is really no way to judge who might cause an accident beforehand and unless you want to outlaw every possible cause of a potential accident,this might include fast-food,changing the radio station,talking to your wife in the passenger seat or your kids in the back seat,adjusting the AC and on and on, how about just holding somebody who is responsible for a wreck at fault whatever the causation?

They're working on that.

 

[AuH20]

Drunk driving should be legal, if it is legal to kill the drunk idiot that smashes into your car.

 

[Sam I am]

I have never caused a wreck or even been involved in a wreck as a licensed driver in 48 years since I got my first license to drive.
There is no question that Denny Hamlin,Jimmie Johnson,Jeff Gordon,Dale Earnhardt Jr. and tens of thousands of others would be more competent drivers than me if I was stone cold sober and they all blew a .20.

My sister caused a wreck when she was fishing around in her lap for a hamburger that she had dropped.She was stone cold sober at the time.

There is really no way to judge who might cause an accident beforehand and unless you want to outlaw every possible cause of a potential accident,this might include fast-food,changing the radio station,talking to your wife in the passenger seat or your kids in the back seat,adjusting the AC and on and on,how about just holding somebody who is responsible for a wreck at fault whatever the causation?

They outlaw arbitrary things like drunk driving for a few reasons

1. It's a specific and quantifiable rule. The fact that the rule is discrete like this is good for you, the citizen, It makes it easier for you to prevent yourself from getting charged, and it gives less discretionary power to the cops to charge you because they just feel like it.

2. They try to pick the more dangerous things to while driving, and alcohol is one of them.

3. They want to make a law that takes effect before an accident actually happens and kills people.

 

[Christian Liberty]

Drunk driving should be legal, if it is legal to kill the drunk idiot that smashes into your car.

If someone is killed than it should be "life for life".

If its just the car smashed than it should be double restitution.

 

[mad cow]

They outlaw arbitrary things like drunk driving for a few reasons

1. It's a specific and quantifiable rule. The fact that the rule is discrete like this is good for you, the citizen, It makes it easier for you to prevent yourself from getting charged, and it gives less discretionary power to the cops to charge you because they just feel like it.

2. They try to pick the more dangerous things to while driving, and alcohol is one of them.

3. They want to make a law that takes effect before an accident actually happens and kills people.

That is what's known as pre-crime.

And speaking of cops,it is illegal in many States to use a cell phone while driving.Have you ever seen a picture of the front seat of a modern police car?
Radios,radars,computers and more that they don't use hands-free controls to operate.

I guess much like Denny Hamlin,Dale Earnhardt Jr, et al they are just much,much better drivers than we mere citizens can ever hope to be.

 

[paleocon1]

A drunk driver who kills should face a mandatory death penalty.

 

[Aspie Minarcho-Capitalist]

I personally advocate DUI laws as I think drunk driving is a perniciously irresponsible malpractice , but then again I'm steadfast against seat belt laws and I don't believe in any methodological coercion to enforce my viewpoints on drunk driving. Let owners of private roads (if any) to deter the practice (inc retribution for accidents not within the threshold of minor to serious injuries of another driver) and let local governments to ascertain it's admissibility; nevertheless, it's highly likely that the public would encourage them to keep it illegal and reasonably so.

 

[Aspie Minarcho-Capitalist]

A drunk driver who kills should face a mandatory death penalty.

Yep, I believe they should too as that will teach them their utmost inconsiderateness.

 

[phill4paul]

A drunk driver who kills should face a mandatory death penalty.

There's a little problem with your final solution....

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

 

[Sam I am]

That is what's known as pre-crime.

And speaking of cops,it is illegal in many States to use a cell phone while driving.Have you ever seen a picture of the front seat of a modern police car?
Radios,radars,computers and more that they don't use hands-free controls to operate.

I guess much like Denny Hamlin,Dale Earnhardt Jr, et al they are just much,much better drivers than we mere citizens can ever hope to be.

It is not pre-crime. Pre-crime is when you get charged before you actually commit the crime, but in this case the crime itself is driving while drunk. That is how the laws are written.

It's only pre-crime if they charge you with drunk driving before you get into the car and drive.

-----

Don't get me wrong, I understand where you're coming from when you're calling it a pre-crime. It seems like you don't think it should be a crime until someone actually gets hurt, and that it's similar to pre-crime when they make illegal actions leading up to someone getting hurt.

But if that's your reasoning, you're forgetting the whole reason why pre-crime enforcement is bad: You can get punished without actually making a decision to break the law. With drunk driving, that is not the case.

 

[mad cow]

It is not pre-crime. Pre-crime is when you get charged before you actually commit the crime, but in this case the crime itself is driving while drunk. That is how the laws are written.

It's only pre-crime if they charge you with drunk driving before you get into the car and drive.

-----

Don't get me wrong, I understand where you're coming from when you're calling it a pre-crime. It seems like you don't think it should be a crime until someone actually gets hurt, and that it's similar to pre-crime when they make illegal actions leading up to someone getting hurt.

But if that's your reasoning, you're forgetting the whole reason why pre-crime enforcement is bad: You can get punished without actually making a decision to break the law. With drunk driving, that is not the case.

It's pre-crime.
Black 15 to 25 year old males are responsible for a much higher percentage of violent crimes than their percentage of the population.

You could pass a law stating that they must wear GPS ankle bracelets and enforce a curfew saying that they must be off the streets by sundown and if one of them is caught after dark you could say that in this case the crime itself is breaking curfew because that is how the laws are written.

It is still pre-crime.

 

[otherone]

If someone is killed than it should be "life for life".

Hammurabi lives.

 

[Anti Federalist]

It's only pre-crime if they charge you with drunk driving before you get into the car and drive.

That happens all the time.

Some guy sleeping one off, parked, car off, and gets charged with a DUI.

 

[paleocon1]

There's a little problem with your final solution....

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

The trail of evidence is pretty clear in a drunk driver case...........and when they kill they really deserve to forfeit their life in return.

 

[paleocon1]

I kinda get the drift that there are a lot of folks here who feel that their drunk/drugged driving should have zero consequences to them even when they kill and maim others.

 

[Christian Liberty]

I kinda get the drift that there are a lot of folks here who feel that their drunk/drugged driving should have zero consequences to them even when they kill and maim others.

No, but some people are against executions (I'm not.)

I'd consider this most applicable to the "goring ox" situation in Biblical law, so I wouldn't make the death penalty mandatory, but the victim's family can do it if they want to.