For the offence of discharging a firearm at premises under s 131A(1) of the Firearms Act 1996, courts must give strong prominence to general deterrence, denunciation and just punishment. The Court endorsed a structured framework of nine measures for assessing objective seriousness including degree of premeditation, nature of firearm, location, time of day, knowledge of occupation, motivation, aim and penetration, role of offender, and whether injury resulted. Current sentencing practices for this relatively new offence range broadly from 15 months to 8 years and 6 months, with a mid-range of approximately four to six years, though the pattern remains sparsely populated and of constrained utility for comparison purposes.
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