If I read the news report correctly, self defence, and the protection of your property is still highly illegal in New Zealand.
Here were the chain of events:
1. A couple of guys are drinking and being noisy at 1am.
2. They wake the neighbour, who I'll call Terry.
3. Terry looks out of the window to see them tossing beer bottles on to his lawn
4. Terry yells out for them to stop
5. They SMASH THEIR WAY INTO THE HOUSE looking for a fight
6. Terry defends himself against TWO MEN with a Maori War Club, getting in a few good hits and sending them outside.
7. They get their cars and do wheelies on his lawn.
8. Terry fires a warning shot with his .22 and tells them to scram.
9. All parties go to bed.
10. Three and a half hours later an Armed Defenders Squad arrive, arrest Terry and throw him in jail. He's been charged with grievous bodily harm and reckless use of a firearm.
11. The two other guys have not been charged. No littering, no reckless use of car on private property, no breaking and entering, no threatening violence.
Self Defence and defence of property is still illegal. The wrong person is in jail.
UPDATE: Given I don't yet have a link, I need to also explain the other aspect of this story - the newspaper report simply took the angle of "Maori war club" used to beat up neighbour, missing the far more newsworthy aspect that I have posted about. Because they took that angle, the facts were sprinkled around the report in almost random order, making it easy for the casual reader to miss the main story - two guys break into a house to beat a guy, and he's now the one in jail.
REF: DomPost today, Page A4
Here were the chain of events:
1. A couple of guys are drinking and being noisy at 1am.
2. They wake the neighbour, who I'll call Terry.
3. Terry looks out of the window to see them tossing beer bottles on to his lawn
4. Terry yells out for them to stop
5. They SMASH THEIR WAY INTO THE HOUSE looking for a fight
6. Terry defends himself against TWO MEN with a Maori War Club, getting in a few good hits and sending them outside.
7. They get their cars and do wheelies on his lawn.
8. Terry fires a warning shot with his .22 and tells them to scram.
9. All parties go to bed.
10. Three and a half hours later an Armed Defenders Squad arrive, arrest Terry and throw him in jail. He's been charged with grievous bodily harm and reckless use of a firearm.
11. The two other guys have not been charged. No littering, no reckless use of car on private property, no breaking and entering, no threatening violence.
Self Defence and defence of property is still illegal. The wrong person is in jail.
UPDATE: Given I don't yet have a link, I need to also explain the other aspect of this story - the newspaper report simply took the angle of "Maori war club" used to beat up neighbour, missing the far more newsworthy aspect that I have posted about. Because they took that angle, the facts were sprinkled around the report in almost random order, making it easy for the casual reader to miss the main story - two guys break into a house to beat a guy, and he's now the one in jail.
REF: DomPost today, Page A4