As someone who read "The Scarlet Letter" in highschool, the lesson I learned is that the state really should avoid encouraging and supporting a culture of vigilantism and ostrization. I for one don't think that lasting punishment* for life are appropriate where addiction is likely the root cause. But if the goal is just that, the laws should be changed to do so more deliberately, rather than offload the dirty work to the public.

Also, I can't decide if "whiskey plates" are useful in any real way. As something that is socially stigmatizing, it's really unclear what the social response (if anything) is supposed to be. That said, I don't know of any PSA or public decree what went along with the launch of such programs. Now I'm just curious.

Hilariously, in Virginia, there are "Gadsden flag" ("don't tread on me") plates that can resemble whiskey plates from other states. So, across state lines, you have people inadvertently diluting this "DUI driver on board" message all while expressing a confused mess of other sentiments.

(* I should clarify this by saying that I'm all for one-time penalties for doing the wrong thing, including removing privileges. It's where we brush up against a person's rights, forever, that I take issue with. To me, revoking a driver's license for life is okay, but removing their sense of personal safety and autonomy through crowdsourced abuse, is not.)

> Also, I can't decide if "whiskey plates" are useful in any real way

Whiskey plates give police permission to pull over the (driver of the) vehicle and perform a sobriety test at any time, without (additional) cause.

Yes, if I took out my gun and fired randomly at a crowd I'm never getting my carry permit back regardless of whether I actually kill anyone. Fuck drunk drivers.

> never getting my carry permit back

27 states don't require a permit. At all. Ponder that.

What point are you trying to make here? You think in states that don't require permits, the state cannot bar that person from owning firearms? Obviously the person you are responding to is referring states that issue carry permits.

Most permitless carry states still issue permits. And like the other commenter said, that doesn't absolve you of responsibility for your actions. You're still probably going to prison.

I've experienced the same amount of violent crime via firearm after permitless carry, as before it: zero.

True but not relevant. I'm saying we apply a much more lenient standard to people posing a threat to public safety with a vehicle than we do to people posing a threat to public safety via other means such as reckless use of a firearm or a laser pointer.

Dependant on your criminal history.

Yes, but you can't legally carry if you have a felony on your record.

My opinion is that DUI should revoke your license. I know it is common in Europe where first offenders loose their license for a few months, and then it gets progressively longer.

The USA has IMO a terrible system which punishes DUI drivers through the justice system regardless of if they caused any harm. This leaves people with pretty shitty lives and prevents people from calling the police on DUI drivers. They can still drive shortly after though.

Revoking their license does not stop them from driving.

This is a good argument for having a robust and useful public transportation system, as well as designing cities to support such a system. Won't happen in the US in my lifetime, but one can cream.

One can, but I think it is better to dream.

It stops by far most people from driving. The ones who are undeterred and keep on driving without a license are then fair game for the criminal justice system.

Even if this minority gets away with continue driving without a license and wont get punished, you still save many lives by taking the vast majority of drunk drivers off the road. That alone is worth it.

No, but it opens up the path to actual jail time, which would get them off the road for good.

I think in Europe you’re a lot less likely to get charged with a DUI.

Rare to see random checkpoints, and generally rare to have non-automated “mobile” enforcement of traffic rules in Europe (in my US, Canadian, French, German and Croatian driving experience).

Heck, in France most collisions don’t even involve police while they’re generally a mandatory report in US/Canada.

If you get a DUI in Europe, you were probably a bad driver on top of being over the limit.

My anecdotal experience is the exact opposite! I'm from some unpopular Canadian province and live in Switzerland. Lots of random controls in CH. I watch a lot of French television where they at least pretend to do the same in France, sort of the Gendarmes de Clermont-Ferrand. Anyway. I've also been a passenger in a car in Germany and the driver was controlled randomly. Now, in my wasted youth in a former capital of Canada, I wasn't once controlled when I should have been.

collisions in the US only have a "mandatory" report because your insurance company requires it. And you have like three days to go into the police station and file one, and the police don't really pay attention to them.

Many drivers think that the police will get involved in every car accident, and when two cars have a little bump, people will stop and get out to "preserve the evidence" for the investigation into "who is at fault" that they expect will soon commence, but when the cops get there (because of the traffic jam) they just confirm that nobody is injured and tell the people to get their cars out of the street, and exchange license and insurance information.

In Ontario Canada, we have "fault determination rules" - fault gets "Algorithmically" assigned, sometimes illogically. Anti-consumer, but saves the insureco a ton on lawyers and balances out for them.

Often police make you go to them. Tow trucks aren't supposed to bring unreported collision vehicles anywhere but a police station.

Cops here do like to take the interaction as an opportunity to issue a ticket, such as "improper lane change" or "careless driving" (which can be another "hit" on your next insurance renewal in addition to the "hit" from being assigned fault).

source: got summoned into court because the physicist who crashed into me tried to fight their ticket. They lost. My work treats this like jury duty and pays me, but I didn't realize until months later they took it out of my vacation. Grrrr.