Fire in the hole! - Catapults and the law (in NSW)

Catapults - A brief post, and only related to NSW

I had a recent discussion with a friend of mine, and we were talking about catapults and their legality. They said to me that it's not a catapult for the purposes of the law if it is a "bait slinger".

I was a bit skeptical of this, and thought I would do a little bit of research on this to learn some more.

There is some legislation in NSW called the Weapons Prohibition Act (1998) ("the Act"). The purpose of the act is stated in section 3 (paraphrased by me):

• Prohibited weapons are a privilege, and can be dangerous and as such need to be regulated
• because of this you need a permit and a genuine reason to possess one.

There is also reference to a need for an amnesty period to surrender the weapons, which for now I just assume is to give people protection if they're trying to responsibly remove the weapon from their possession.

The actual offence is called "Unauthorised possession or use of a prohibited weapon", and under section 7 of the Act the maximum penalty is the (I think substantial) 14 years imprisonment. This is for possessing a prohibited weapon without a permit, or using it in a way that contravenes the permit, or is not specifically what it is permitted to do under the permit.

An example might be having a permit to shoot feral Indian Myna birds with a slingshot (if this permit exists), which also stated do not shoot the native Noisy Myna birds. If you then used the slingshot for self-defence against a human, or for shooting rabbits or kangaroos then it would be for a use outside the permit and you would likely be found to have commited the above offence, and if you shot Noisy Myna birds then you would have directly breached the above permit and again you may be found to have committed the above offence.


Section 4 of the Act directs you to Schedule 1 of the act to find the list of  prohibited weapons. Most relevantly here is at section 2, and subsections 6 and 7 which I quote here and add some emphasis myself in bold: "

(6) A slingshot (being a device consisting of an elasticised band secured to the forks of a "Y" shaped frame), other than a home-made slingshot for use by a child in the course of play.

(7) A Saunders "Falcon" Hunting Sling, or any other device in the nature of a hunting sling, catapult or slingshot that is designed for use with, or a component part of which is, a brace that:

(a) fits or rests on the forearm or on another part of the body of the user, and

(b) supports the wrist against the tension of elastic material used to propel a projectile. "

To my reading this could easily include a bait-thrower, which has a "Y" shaped frame, and an elasticised band, for example see the link here.

A caution...
Also I would carefully note the reference to home-made slingshot, especially if you were thinking of justifying your backyard creation as a legal defence to this.

You would need to establish to a court that the home-made slingshot you made was not, in fact for your use, but was for the use by a child, and only for play. I would be very cautious attempting to do so:

• for example if the use was for a child to hunt feral birds or animals, it is entirely possible that a court may decide that this is not considered play.

Either way, by my reading here I think a bait-thrower would very likely be considered a catapult under this definition.

Examples:

On an academic legal note (and please do not test this theory, I do not want anyone to be injured or arrested on my account), there is a slingshot called the "Pocket Shot Slingshot", here. I found reference to this on a warehouse website here, where they state that because there is no "Y" - frame, this catapult is technically legal in NSW. On my looking at it, there is also no reference to a wrist-brace so this potentially may not be covered by the above hunting sling definition either.

But!

I found a reference to a type of prohibited weapon, at section 4, subsection 9, at the very bottom of the schedule, quoted here (bold added by me): "
(9) Any device (regardless of its composition) that is designed to propel or launch a bomb, grenade, rocket or missile by any means other than by means of an explosive, including a device known as a PVC cannon. "

It is possible that the intention of this section is to refer to a military-style missile with its own source of propulsion such as a fuel. However, the ordinary definition of a missile can include a regular projectile (see this definition). As such, I think there is a decent argument, and that it is open to a court to conclude, that if the above "Pocket Shot Slingshot" can "propel" a projectile or potentially "missile", which it is advertised to do, then it could easily be covered by this section of the schedule, especially as a purpose of the Act is to regulate dangerous weapons.

Conclusion:
I would be very careful and err on the side of caution. As the Act is designed to regulate dangerous weapons, then if you have anything that could be used dangerously, make sure you have a current really good reason to own it, only use it for that purpose, and (not or!) if required, have a permit and follow the requirements of the permit. If in doubt I strongly recommend you seek legal advice regarding your specific object, tool etc.

Also even if your "weapon" was found not to be a weapon, if you assault someone with it that is almost always an offence! So I recommend you don't do it.

I found the schedule an interesting read (even for non-legally-trained readers), and I recommend it academically to learn about the kinds of weapons that are ordinarily prohibited in NSW.

Disclaimer
Please don't take this as anything more than legal information, not advice. I'm happy to do research to answer any academic questions, but I will not give advice about your personal situation if it exists, except to advice you to seek further legal advice.

Otherwise, I welcome all feedback and questions!

Again the legislation I referred to was on Austlii instead of legislation.nsw.gov.au. This is for convenience as Austlii is easier to navigate, and is usually sufficient for these purposes, but for the highest level of legal accuracy, please check legislation.nsw.gov.au, here.

Further reading
There is also the NSW Firearms Act 1998 here, specifically relating to gun laws in NSW. 

As a lot of my friends are Victorian, there is a list of prohibited weapons for Victoria here in schedule 3 of the Victorian Control of Weapons Regulations 2011. I may or may not do a Victorian post if I have time in the future!

Self-Defence, Martial Arts and the Law - Do they need to know you're a lethal weapon?

Do not tell someone you are a martial artist if you need to defend yourself or someone else!

Imagine you are highly trained in a particular martial art. You're walking down the street, typically at night and a dark figure starts walking towards you and you start to feel concerned. You start to walk a little faster and they match your pace. Eventually, you turn to confront them and you realise they're clearly looking to cause you some injury (for whatever reason). Most people would just run at this point, (and you arguably should for safety purposes), but what should you do if there is nowhere to run?

I came across an interesting concept a while ago: I was told that if you had a black belt in a martial art you needed to tell people who were looking to pick a fight with you before you defended yourself, otherwise you would be in big trouble if you injured them when they eventually make that less-than intelligent decision to fight you. (Interestingly, on a side note I came upon this article stating that in Guam you needed to register your hands and feet as deadly weapons or risk a charge of aggravated assault upon using your art on someone, however this is not the case in NSW).

Both according to NSW law, and according to common-sense logic this is completely incorrect.

Under NSW law "An assault is an act by which a person intentionally or perhaps recklessly causes another person to apprehend the immediate infliction of unlawful force upon him" whereas "a battery is the actual infliction of unlawful force" (see paragraph 71 of Darby v Director of Public Prosecutions [2004] NSWCA 431, here). Both an assault and a battery are treated as the same offence in NSW (according to the Judicial Benchbook, here referencing DPP v JWH (unrep NSWSC, 17 Oct 1997).

Luckily, and pragmatically there is law in place to protect you when you attempt to stop someone from committing an assault or battery against you or someone else.

If you apply force to someone else, and you are acting in self-defence, this is a complete defence to you being charged with assault (see the NSW Crimes Act here) . This is irrespective of whether you are a boxer, Tae-Kwon-Do Practitioner, wrestler, Mixed-Martial Artist, gamer, whatever.

And you do not, I repeat do NOT have to tell them you are a martial artist before you defend yourself: "No don't swing that punch I'm a bla...ow!" and it's already too late. Also, they may then decide to hit you from behind, or use a weapon because you have revealed your training.

This would make no sense and is not the law in NSW.

However, where your training becomes relevant:

The law of self-defence requires two things: one, there needs to be a reasonable possibility that you believed that your conduct was necessary to defend yourself (or your friend) and two, there needs to be a reasonable possibility that what you did was a reasonable response to the circumstances as you perceived them.  (see the Act here, and the common law interpretation in R v Katarzynski [2002] NSWSC 613 here).

Number one would apply to most people who thought they needed to defend themselves or their friend. The second part is most important in this case for martial artists. As a martial artist who potentially knows how to disable someone efficiently without seriously injuring them, there may be a greater expectation on you on what is a reasonable response, requiring you to have more self-control and cause less injury to the person than you are capable of. For example, if you caused someone injury by holding a chokehold too long as a wrestler, or striking them excessively as a boxer you are at risk of not being eligible for using the complete legal defence of self-defence. This could lead to you being charged with an assault, whether the less serious common assault (under here); or the more serious assault occasioning actual bodily harm (here); or the even more serious intentionally or recklessly causing grievous bodily harm (here or here respectively); or finally the most serious assault causing death (here) for example (though if you did cause death, you would probably be only liable for manslaughter, provided you satisfied the first requirement mentioned above: see here).

So in summary, if you know a martial art and someone swings a punch, you can essentially retaliate to the extent that you are defending yourself or someone else, but no more.

It's always safer and better to run if you have that option. Fights are inherently uncertain, and generally not worth it.

Disclaimer

The information in this publication is general and is not intended to be specific legal advice on any matter. If you have a specific legal problem you should consult a lawyer. To the extent permissible by law, the author of this blog disclaims all liability for anything contained in this resource and any use any person, organisation or entity makes of it.