With the stroke of a good, old-fashioned ink pen, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant made communicating with pixels while driving illegal.

Bryant signed into law last week House Bill 389 that bans texting while driving.

It would appear Mississippi is late to the text-banning party since 44 other states have also banned the behavior.

Clearly sending or reading texts, email or social media messages while operating a moving motor vehicle is neither safe nor wise.

Any sort of distraction causes a motor vehicle to become an enormous weapon careening down the roadway.

The person that weapon strikes may be you or a loved one.

But somehow, even national campaigns and just plain common sense have thus far not curbed much texting. Our roads are clogged with drivers with smartphones in one hand and the steering wheel in the other.

One of human’s flaws is the ability to justify and convince oneself that, “Nothing bad will happen to me.”

Yet it does, again and again.

The law is a good start, we suppose, but with a first-time offense only earning a $25 fine and subsequent offenses at $100, we fear it may not deter the behavior. The law lacks the teeth to truly switch off the problem between drivers’ ears that makes them think they’re invincible and infallible.