Firearms Offences Flashcards
Firearms Offences
Dangerous Act with intent to injure - s198(2) CA61
Ingredients
s198(2) CA61 - 7yrs
- with intent to injure
OR with reckless disregard for the safety of others - does any of the acts referred to in subsection (1)
Firearms Offences
Using a firearm to resist arrest - s198A(2) CA61
Ingredients
s198A(2) CA61 - 10yrs
- uses any firearm in any manner whatever
- with intent to resist the lawful arrest or detention of himself or herself or of any other person.
Firearms Offences
Using a firearm in commission of an offence (Prima Facie)
s198B(1)(b) CA61
s198B(1)(b) CA61 - 10 yrs
- while committing any imprisonable offence
- has any firearm with him or her
- in circumstances that prima facie show an intention to use it in connection with that imprisonable offence.
Firearms Offences
Define
- Bodily harm
- Grievous Bodily harm
State case law for each
Actual Bodily Harm
Actual bodily harm may be internal or external, and it need not be permanent or dangerous.
R v Donovan
‘Bodily harm’ … includes any hurt or injury calculated to interfere with the health or comfort of [the victim] … it need not be permanent, but must, no doubt, be more than merely transitory and trifling.
Grievous Bodily Harm
Grievous bodily harm can be defined simply as “harm that is really serious”
DPP v Smith
“Bodily harm” needs no explanation and “grievous” means no more and no less than “really serious”.
Firearms Offences
R v Pekepo
R v Pekepo
A reckless discharge of a firearm in the general direction of a passer-by who happens to be hit is not sufficient proof. An intention to shoot that person must be established.
Firearms Offences
Discuss - Uses in any manner
State case law (Police v Parker)
Uses in Any Manner
The primary meaning of the word “use” in relation to a firearm is to fire it, but the words “in any manner whatever” widen the definition to include a range of acts that stop short of actually shooting at an officer, such as where a firearm is used as a club.
Police v Parker
“Use in any manner whatever” is to contemplate a situation short of actually firing the weapon and to present a rifle too, I think, is equivalent to or means the same thing …
Firearms Offences
Discuss - “Has with him”
State case law (R v Kelt)
Has With Him
Under this provision the offender must knowingly have the firearm with them – mere possession is insufficient.
R v Kelt [1977] 3 All ER 1099
Having a firearm “with him” requires a very close physical link and a degree of immediate control over the weapon by the man alleged to have the firearm with him”.
Firearms Offences
R v Tuli
Tuli v Police (1987) 2 CRNZ 638
Prima facie circumstances are those which are sufficient to show or establish an intent in the absence of evidence to the contrary.
Firearms Offences
3 intents under s198 CA61
- intent to do grievous bodily harm
- intent to injure
- reckless disregard for the safety of others.
Firearms Offences
Discuss - Imprisonable offence
Any offence which is punishable by a term of imprisonment.
Firearms Offences
Define: - Firearm (s2 AA 83)
Firearm, Airgun & Explosive (s2 Arms Act 1983)
Firearm—
(a) Means anything from which any shot, bullet, missile, or other projectile can be discharged by force of explosive; and
(b) Includes—
(i) Anything that has been adapted so that it can be used to discharge a shot, bullet, missile, or other projectile by force of explosive; and
(ii) Anything which is not for the time being capable of discharging any shot, bullet, missile, or other projectile but which, by its completion or the replacement of any component part or parts or the correction or repair of any defect or defects, would be a firearm within the meaning of paragraph (a) of this definition or subparagraph (i) of this paragraph; and
(iii) Anything (being a firearm within the meaning of paragraph (a) of this definition or subparagraph (i) of this paragraph) which is for the time being dismantled or partially dismantled; and
(iv) Any specially dangerous airgun:
Firearms Offences
Define - Airgun (s2 AA 83)
Airgun includes—
(a) Any air rifle; and
(b) Any air pistol; and
(c) Any weapon from which, by the use of gas or compressed air (and not by force of explosive), any shot, bullet, missile, or other projectile can be discharged:
Firearms Offences
Define - Explosives (s2 AA 83)
Explosive—
(a) Means any substance or mixture or combination of substances which in its normal state is capable either of decomposition at such rapid rate as to result in an explosion or of producing a pyrotechnic effect; and
(b) Without limiting paragraph (a) of this definition, includes gunpowder, nitroglycerine, dynamite, gun-cotton, blasting powder, fulminate of mercury or of other metals, coloured flares, fog signals, fuses, rockets, percussion caps, detonators, cartridges, and ammunition of all descriptions; and
(c) Without limiting paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) of this definition, includes any device, contrivance, or article, which uses any substance or mixture or combination of substances to which paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) of this definition applies as an integral part of it for the purposes of producing an explosion or a ballistic or pyrotechnic effect; but does not include a firearm; and
[(d) Does not include any firework as defined in section 2 of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996:]
Firearms Offences
Define - Constable
Constable – S4 Policing Act 2008
constable means a Police employee who—
(a) holds the office of constable (whether appointed as a constable under the Police Act 1958 or this Act); and
(b) includes a constable who holds any level of position within the New Zealand Police
Firearms Offences
Discuss - Acting in the execution or duty
The term includes every lawful act a constable does while on duty and may include acts done where the circumstances create a professional obligation for a constable to exercise policing duties while off duty.
However, an officer who is acting unlawfully, it cannot be said to be “acting in the course of his or her duty”.
