Shoot-to-kill laws: will we be the next USA?

New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian is side-stepping debate to make the military the first responders in the event of terrorism with one simple change.

She wants to allow police to shoot to kill.

At present, it seems the law would only apply to police in terror events. This stark change in law is directly connected to the Lindt café siege in 2014.

Now that the police inquest has been completed, the government is processing and implementing all 45 recommendations handed down by state coroner Michael Barnes on Wednesday, May 24.

Recommendation 24 in the report reads: “I recommend that the Minister for Police consider whether the provisions of the Terrorism (Police Powers) Act 2002 should be amended to ensure that police officers have sufficient legal protection to respond to terrorist incidents in a manner most likely to minimise the risk to members of the public.”  

At present, there are legal grey areas when it comes to fatalities at the hands of police. While a police officer could technically shoot to kill, any fatality at the hands of a police officer would result in a coronial inquest.

During this inquest, the police officer would have to justify, under oath, that the force exerted against the offender was reasonable.

In keeping with the coronial findings, Berejiklian’s proposed legislation would remove the need for this coronial inquest only if the fatality occurred during a terrorist incident.

The matter will be put to a vote at the next sitting of parliament on June 20; Luke Foley, leader of the NSW Labor Party, has already declared his party’s support for such a change, so it’s likely this legislation will pass. Could it lead to even more changes in the future?

The United Kingdom already has this legislation in place, and UK prime minister Theresa May is all for it.

“I also support, absolutely, ‘shoot to kill’ and I think what we saw on our streets on Saturday was how important that was,” May said during a speech after last Saturday’s London terror event.

“Those police officers, within eight minutes, had shot three attackers and killed them, and that saved countless lives.”

The United States is under continuous national and international scrutiny for its gun laws; many will be unsurprised that shoot-to-kill laws are alive and well stateside.

Could Australia one day follow in the footsteps of the US?

While shoot-to-kill laws have not been introduced in Australia yet, statistics show that there were 105 fatalities at the hands of police between 1985 and 2011.

The UK, by comparison, only had 52 fatalities in the same period.

With this legislation about to pass in New South Wales, only time will tell which example Australia’s gun laws will follow.  

How do you feel about the introduction of shoot-to-kill laws in New South Wales?