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!