*SOLO-NZ Press Release:

Entrench the Right to Self-Defence!

**June 11, 2008 *

The NZ Bill of Rights Act should be amended forthwith to include the right to use reasonable force, including armed force, in self-defence, says SOLO Principal Lindsay Perigo.

This, in the wake of the fatal shooting of liquor store owner Navtej Singh last weekend.

"Mr. Singh's killers had no qualms about sporting a gun, probably unlicensed, and using it. Innocent citizens should be able to do the same in self-defence.

"Apart from anything else, the knowledge that their potential victims might be armed might well deter murderous scum from their killing and looting sprees.

"When the innocent, like Greg Carvell, *do* use a gun in self-defence, the first instinct of the police and the Crown should be to congratulate, not prosecute, them.

"Police should be adequately armed to do their job of protecting ordinary citizens but should not make it impossible for those ordinary citizens to protect themselves when they, the police, are going to wrong locations, or are too busy revenue-gathering to do what they're supposed to be doing.

"The government should not make it impossible for ordinary citizens to protect themselves just because they might one day, justly, train their guns on it, the government, which loots and defrauds them on a massive, legalised scale.

"The rights to self-defence, and to bear arms, should be part of a long-term constitution for the country. Short-term, they should be added to the existing Bill of Rights," Perigo concludes.

ENDS

© Scoop Media