In legal terms, Australians have a right of self-defence. While some
states rely on the common law and others have it enshrined in statute, the
right itself is never questioned. Moreover, juries consistently refuse to
convict those charged with serious offences whenever self-defence is made out.
What we don’t have is the practical ability to exercise that right.
Possessing any object specifically for the purpose of self-defence, lethal or
non-lethal, is a criminal offence. There are many women, raped and/or murdered,
who would have been liable to prosecution had they been carrying anything that
might have saved them.
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