When you may use it

Start with this. A firearm is the last resort, never the first. Getting away, locking a door, and calling the police or your security company come first wherever they are possible. If you do use force, the law will ask afterwards whether it was necessary and whether it was reasonable in the circumstances. A court decides that on all the facts, sometimes long after the event. The unit standard asks you to describe the common law on private defence and necessity, and the situations in which a handgun may and may not be used.

Private defence is the legal name for self-defence and the defence of others. As it is generally stated, the attack must be unlawful, it must already be happening or be about to happen, and it must be against something the law protects, such as a person's life, body or property. The defence must be aimed at the attacker, it must be necessary, meaning there was no less harmful way to stop the attack, and it must be reasonable in all the circumstances. If any of these is missing, it is not private defence, and the person who used force may be the one who is prosecuted.

Necessity is a different defence. Here the danger does not come from an unlawful attack by the person whose interest you harm. It might be an animal, a fire, or an emergency, and to avoid it you harm someone else's interest, for example their property. A common example is shooting a dog that is attacking a child: the dog is not an unlawful human attacker, so the defence is necessity, not private defence. Again, it must be necessary and reasonable. A court decides.

Here is when private defence generally does not apply. When the attacker has given up or is running away, the attack is over, and so is the right to defend against it. Force used to punish or take revenge is not defence. If you started the fight, the attack on you may not be unlawful. If you could safely have got away or locked the door, force may not have been necessary. And using deadly force only to protect property is rarely reasonable, because a life weighs far more than a television. The more serious the force, the stronger the justification it needs.

On top of the common law, the Act has its own offences. Pointing a firearm at anyone without good reason, whether it is loaded or not, carries up to ten years. Firing in a built-up area or public place without good reason, up to five. Handling it in a way likely to endanger people or property, also up to five. Drawing your handgun to frighten someone in a road-rage argument is pointing it, and it is a serious crime.

Sipho asks what he should do if someone breaks in and runs off with his television. Anel's answer is simple. If the person is running away, the attack is over. Call the police, note what they look like, and let them go. A television can be replaced; a life, and your freedom, can't.

Anel gives Sipho four questions to have settled in his head long before he ever needs them. Can I get away: leave, lock a door, hide? Can I get help: the police, a security company, neighbours? Is the attack really happening now, and is it unlawful? And is what I am about to do the least force that will stop it? Thinking this through calmly now is what lets you act lawfully under pressure.

Your turn. Decide for each situation whether private defence may apply, necessity may apply, or neither. Answer four quick questions. Then think of one situation in your own life where leaving would be the safest choice. Next lesson, you learn the fundamentals of shooting.