Venkat Raman
All New Zealanders should have the right to self-defence to ward off offenders, New Zealand People’s Party Leader Roshan Nauhria has said.
“The only way to put some fear into those offenders who attack retail operators including diaries, liquor shops, petrol stations and others is to allow them the power to defend themselves. Our Party does not accept the government propaganda that crime is on the decline in New Zealand. To say so is highly irresponsible,” he told Indian Newslink.
Mr Nauhria said that even teenagers are not afraid of the Police because they know that the Police are powerless.
Amending the Statute
“Why should retailers and common people be afraid of being invaded during day or night, at shops or homes or public places? If we become a part of the next government, we will amend the Crimes Act and make self-defence legal. Every resident in this country has the right to safety and if that safety can come from their own actions, so be it,” he said.
Mr Nauhria said that one of the primary objectives of his Party is to eradicate crime and establish law and order.
“Too many offenders are getting away with murders and violent attacks on innocent people who about making a living. It is time to say, ‘enough is enough,’ and allow people their right to safety,” he said.
System failure
Mr Nauhria said that neither he nor his Party was advocating vigilantism.
“We will also deal with gangs, put in place a long period of rehabilitation of young offenders and tighten home detention rules. Our legal system has failed us and it is time to look at crime with effective solutions,” he said.
Robust Right
Sometime ago, Lech Beltowski, a medical practitioner and spokesman for Sporting Shooters’ Association of New Zealand said that a robust right of self defence (together with reasonable and legal access to the means of self-defence) strengthens and reaffirms the basic and historical philosophy that citizens have a moral and legal right to defend themselves against criminal attack.
“It demonstrates that government is democratic and trusts its citizens. It also demonstrates a pragmatic acceptance by the authorities that there will always be a small minority of dangerous criminals or deranged individuals roaming free in our society and that in reality the State is unable to protect the ordinary citizen and their property from such people,” he said, writing on the website of Sensible Sentencing Trust website.
No discrimination
An individual’s right of legal self defence is based on the same law that police use to justify carrying firearms and the use of deadly force, he said.
“The relevant section (48) of the NZ Crimes Act (Defence Against Assault) states, ‘Everyone is justified in using, in defence of himself or another, such force as, in the circumstances as he believes them to be, it is reasonable to use.’ Note that this applies to everyone and nothing in the Act gives police greater rights or gives grounds for them to discriminate against the self-defence needs of ordinary citizens.”
Prior to the 2014 general election, then ACT Leader Jamie Whyte had said that shopkeepers should be free to keep guns under their counter, but former Prime Minister John Key has dismissed the proposal, describing it as “dangerous.”
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Photo Caption:
Roshan Nauhria
