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2018/08: Should Australians be legally able to carry non-lethal weapons for self-defence?





Introduction to the media issue

Video clip at right: On June 14, 2018, Senator David Leyonhjelm was interviewed on 9's Today program as to whether Australians should be legally able to carry non-lethal weapons such as pepper spray, mace and tasers. Leyonhjelm briefly shifts during the interview into a discussion of whether Australians should be able to carry guns.


What they said...
'Vulnerable people need some form of defence against violent individuals of superior strength'
Senator Fraser Anning, Katter's Australia Party

'Senator Anning's motion puts the onus on women to go to extreme lengths to ensure our safety, when the priority must be to eradicate men's violence'
Senator Janet Rice, the Australian Greens

The controversy at a glance
On June 18, 2018, Victorian MP with the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, Jeffery Bourman, posted on Facebook that he would be putting a motion before the Victorian Legislative Council to ensure 'that all practical and reasonable methods of self-defence are available to those who want them'. Mr Bourman wrote, 'I want people to have the option of non-lethal methods of self-defence such as pepper spray and stun guns.' The motion was filed the following day.
On June 28, 2018, senator Fraser Anning, of Katter's Australian Party, moved a motion in the federal Senate calling on the government to relax import laws affecting tasers, pepper spray and Mace in response to crimes against women. The senator wants state governments to legalise and promote the carrying of pepper spray, mace and tasers by women to be used in self-defence. The federal motion was defeated 46 to five.
Both motions appear to have been immediately in response to the death of Eurydice Dixon, a 22-year-old Melbourne comedian whose body was found in Princes Park, early on the morning of June 13, 2018. A 19-year-old man has since confessed to her rape and murder. The young woman's death has provoked extensive debate within Australia as to how women's safety might best be secured. In Victoria, this most recent death has been seen in conjunction with the deaths of Jill Meagher and Masa Vukotic, both young women killed since 2012 in random outdoor attacks in Melbourne.