Topeka ? Flanked by a half-dozen sheriffs and leather-clad members of Bikers Against Child Abuse, Atty. Gen. Phill Kline tried Wednesday to rally support for the toughest bill against sex offenders he thinks he can get.

Kline supports making life without parole the penalty for a second conviction of raping or otherwise sexually abusing a child.

Joining the attorney general for a news conference in the House chamber was Mark Lunsford, a former Homosassa Springs, Fla., truck driver who began campaigning for tougher state laws against sex offenders after the murder of his 9-year-old daughter, Jessica, last year. Police say a 47-year-old sex offender abducted her, raped her and buried her alive.

The event came only hours before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on a bill sponsored by Rep. Patricia Kilpatrick, R-Overland Park, for punishing second-time child victimizers with life without parole. Last week, the Senate approved a bill that strengthens penalties, but not as much as Kilpatrick’s measure.

“To lose your child the way I lost mine is not something you want to live with,” Lunsford said, his voice shaking.

Kline, many legislators and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius all have made increasing penalties for sex offenses against children a high priority.

Speaking for the bikers’ group, Shaun Bennett, of Topeka, a Southern Baptist minister, said the legislation Kline supports will prevent children from being abused. Bennett, said he counseled abused teenagers for eight years. “My experience with sexual abuse survivors is that they do just that – they simply survive,” he said. “They never get over it.”

A few legislators have expressed concern that getting tougher will require the state to expand its prison system, but the Senate passed its bill, 34-5.

The bill Kline favors would apply upon a second conviction for rape, which includes any sexual intercourse with a child under 14. It also would apply for second convictions of sodomy or indecent liberties, sexual exploitation or indecent solicitation of a child.

The Senate’s bill makes 40 years in prison without parole the sentence for a second offense and life without parole the sentence for a third one.

Currently, a second-time rapist can be sentenced to maximum of 33 years and four months in prison.

Kline and other backers of increasing penalties argue that sex offenders who prey on children often have committed many crimes before getting caught and don’t stop, even after serving time in prison.

“It has been intuitive for generations that somebody who rapes children is somebody who shouldn’t get the opportunity to rape another child,” Kline said.

Asked about making life without parole the sentence for a first-time offender, Kline said: “I don’t believe that would pass.”

Kline said legislators have too often been concerned with the budget implications of strengthening penalties and have hesitated to get tough.

But Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, said legislators are driven first by concerns about crime and realize the budget implications only a few years later, resulting in efforts to lessen some penalties.

Still, Sawyer said he agrees the state needs to get tougher with sex offenders.

Lawmakers in both chambers also are looking at proposals to increase the penalties for offenders who have been released from prison but fail to register with law enforcement officials and to make it a felony to help offenders avoid being tracked.