Someone charged with waving a loaded, cocked gun in public eight times undoubtedly would be locked up for a long, long time in West Virginia. Why is it, then, that people guilty of the equivalent — repeatedly driving while intoxicated — so often are allowed to go free, putting the lives of others in jeopardy and sometimes taking them?

Once again, a man with a long record of driving while intoxicated has been charged with causing an accident that killed people. It happened in Wayne, where Bobby Frazier, of Louisa, Ky., has been charged in connection with an accident that killed four people.

Frazier has a long record, including at least eight previous DUI charges. He was charged with third-offense DUI in 2003 and 2006 in Kentucky.

That is not an unfamiliar scenario. It involves people with drivers’ licenses in other states, but with multiple DUI convictions, who kill people on Mountain State highways.