Police in Western Australia have seized guns and revoked or suspended firearms permits from dozens of owners linked to what investigators describe as sovereign citizen ideologies, or views that reject government authority.
Officials linked the crackdown on firearms users believed to hold such views to the fatal shooting in August of two police officers in Victoria state, in the country’s east. The suspect in those killings, 56-year-old Dezi Freeman, remains at large, weeks after he is said to have killed two officers visiting his rural property to serve a search warrant.
In the years before the shooting, Freeman appeared to have embraced so-called sovereign citizen views during court appearances. Members of such movements use debunked legal theories to reject government authority.
Freeman is suspected of killing Detective Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart and wounding a third officer. Following the shooting, investigators in Western Australia used bolstered gun laws enacted in 2024 to identify weapons owners in their state who they said held similar views to Freeman’s.
“The mission of this operation was simple and that was to validate and verify our intelligence on who may hold sovereign citizen ideologies here in Western Australia,” the state’s Police Commissioner Col Blanch told reporters on Sunday. Social media posts and information from other gun owners was used to identify those targeted.
Officers visited 70 properties over five days in late September and early October, seizing 135 firearms and suspending or revoking 44 gun licenses, Blanch said. Investigators relied on a legal provision that allows only someone who meets the standard of a “fit and proper person” to hold a gun permit.
“If you have made it very clear that you do not abide by the laws of Western Australia, set by the Parliament, then there is no way that you can be a fit and proper person,” Blanch said.
— Charlotte Graham-McLay in Police in Australia seize guns from dozens of owners who hold views rejecting government authority
“The mission of this operation was simple and that was to validate and verify our intelligence on who may hold sovereign citizen ideologies here in Western Australia,” the state’s Police Commissioner Col Blanch told reporters on Sunday.”
Something tells me what constitutes ‘sovereign citizen ideologies’ will be rather flexible, and expand over time, depending on the totalitarian in charge…
Geoff,
Welcome to Amerikkka, if an Obama wanna-be beats J.D. Vance in ’28. They want us all DED.
Seems harsh. What are the laws of Western Australia that some people can’t abide?
Look up the recent changes to their gun laws. They also have a State Constitution which allows them to grab you, hold you down and inject you with any vaccine the government mandates amongst other things. While the Federal gov in Australia must give fair compensation for property seized by it (there are ways around that too like restrictions on farm use without compensation), the States are under no such requirement. In Australian States, the Police actually make most of gun laws which are rubber stamped by the politicians.
This is penalising people for thought crime.
I did most of my education including university in Western Australia. Still live in Australia but another State.
Aussie mentality has always fostered authoritarian ideology. They have always been such wankers
There are only a few Australians who value freedom and liberty (they look at you blankly as if you are from another planet if you mention them). The rest just want to be told what to do and have the warders provide what they need.
A country with not too many people, vast space and resources, no large native population, people who used to be reasonably well educated and it has been stuffed up beyond belief. Australians should all be filthy rich but belief in government and sloth has led to the present disaster.
Sounds totally legit. Now for equality’s sake, we also have to disarm all gang bangers and cholos.
I am an official of two clubs of historic firearms here in Western Australia. This follows a new badly-designed, badly implemented set of laws designed to drive us all out of our sport and if we wont go and are willing to pay the crazy costs for new safes and alarms, cut the numbers of guns we are allowed to have. Heirlooms are no longer a legitimate reason to have your grandfathers old gun, and the stress and panic among the elderly owners of such things is terrible.
I must say, I do have some sympathy for the government position here; and yes, I am a licenced shooter in my state.
Since the people who claim to be sovereign citizens don’t recognise the government as having any lawful authority over them, or laws as applying to them, it IS reasonable to see them as having a higher risk factor.
However my main question is; do ‘soverign citizens’ have licences for their firearms? How do they reconcile that with their position? If they do, fine. If they don’t have a licence, prosecute them!
Paul Compton