Editorial: Taking up arms to defend your castle

OPINION: There are all shades of grey in the case of a man who was convicted of unlawfully presenting a firearm at police.

On March 13, Taupo man Jeremy Graves locked himself out of his home, so he smashed a window to get in.

A neighbour, who was also an off-duty policeman, assumed the house was being broken into.

Two unarmed officers turned up on the scene and entered the house.

Upon hearing them enter, Graves pulled out an unloaded air gun with a laser sight and pointed it at one of the officers. He was warned that the two men were police officers. The whole situation, because of a series of actions and assumptions, was a terrible mix-up that thankfully didn't end with anyone getting hurt.

The officers were rightly doing their jobs, as was the neighbour. Graves too, felt within his rights to defend his property. He assumed that he was the victim of a burglary and responded in the manner that many other New Zealanders would.

Judge Chris McGuire convicted Graves and gave him a deferred sentence.

Over the airwaves yesterday, people were outraged that Graves was found to be in the wrong, and considered his actions to be justifiable given the circumstances.

They could put themselves in his shoes and, considering no-one was harmed, many felt that his punishment did not match the what had happened.

The judge too was lambasted for his decision, but the situation was not as clear cut as right and wrong.

The case was full of many "what if" scenarios that may have played themselves out, but ultimately didn't.

Judge McGuire did have to afford the police officers some level of protection by taking the charges seriously because they were doing what they thought was right, and were performing their duty.

He was likely considering that, in the future, police officers may find themselves in similar situations and not bother to investigate the situation. He also had to send a deterrent message that picking up a gun (of any kind) is not always the appropriate response.

The conviction was not a popular one by any means, but the judge – much like the officers involved – did have a duty to perform. If the men coming into the house were not police officers the case would no doubt have been dealt with differently.

It may seem a little bit sci-fi, but police plans to look at a range of non-lethal weapons is a sensible and practical approach. Rather than rely on guns, pepper spray and batons it makes sense to look at all of the options. The list includes electric Taser bullets, sock bags and bean bags. There's even a launcher that fires out small batons made up of foam, rubber or plastic.

- © Fairfax NZ News