Western Australia – Police in Western Australia have carried out a series of gun seizures targeting licensed firearms owners accused of holding “sovereign citizen” views — a loosely defined belief system that rejects government authority.
The move, authorities say, was prompted by the fatal shooting of two police officers in neighboring Victoria in August.
Gun Seizures & Suspensions
Over the span of five days in late September and early October, police visited 70 properties, seizing 135 firearms and suspending or revoking 44 gun licenses, according to Western Australia Police Commissioner Col Blanch.
“The mission of this operation was simple,” Blanch said. “To validate and verify our intelligence on who may hold sovereign citizen ideologies here in Western Australia.”
He added that police relied on “social media posts and information from other gun owners” to identify individuals who were subsequently deemed unfit to possess firearms. Under the state’s law, only a person considered a “fit and proper person”, whatever that means, may hold a gun license.
“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 told reporters.
Yet the people targeted by AU authorities actually followed the rules and had their proper firearms permits and licensing!?
The Freeman Case and Tighter Laws
The crackdown follows the August 26 killing of two Victoria Police officers — Detective Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart — at a rural property in Porepunkah, Victoria. The suspect, 56-year-old Dezi (Desmond) Freeman, remains at large. Police say Freeman, who fled armed into dense forest, had previously expressed “sovereign citizen” views during court appearances.
In 2021, Freeman was recorded in court attempting to “arrest” a magistrate and police officers, and in 2024, a judge described him as having “a history of unpleasant encounters with police officers,” referring to them in filings as “Nazis” and “terrorist thugs.”
Following the shooting, investigators in Western Australia invoked new 2024 gun laws described by officials as the strictest in the country. Those laws limit most individuals to owning no more than ten firearms and broaden police discretion to revoke licenses.
Police Justify the Crackdown
Commissioner Blanch said the raids were justified to protect public safety and prevent future attacks on law enforcement. “In the past three years, six police officers in four states have been shot dead by members of the public, which is unprecedented in Australia,” he said.
The Commissioner cited earlier tragedies, including a 2022 incident in Queensland where two officers were killed by what authorities called “Christian extremists” and another pair of police deaths in South Australia and Tasmania between 2023 and 2025.
A Rare Use of Force in a Country with Tight Gun Control
Despite what politicians claim, Australia’s low crime rate didn’t begin with gun control. The 1996 Port Arthur massacre became the excuse for sweeping confiscation laws that banned most semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, built a national registry, and buried citizens in red tape—but it did not make Australia safer, just disarmed.
When Western Australia’s new legislation passed last June, the government publicly described it as “the toughest in the nation.”
Critics of the new enforcement approach warn that using ideology or social media beliefs as grounds for firearm confiscation could further erode civil liberties in a country where private gun ownership is already heavily restricted.
Meanwhile, the massive search for fugitive Dezi Freeman continues across rugged terrain in Victoria, marking one of Australia’s largest-ever manhunts. Police have yet to confirm any sightings of the suspect, who is said to have survivalist training.
We are in dangerous times! We are SO CLOSE to our final funding goals! With your help we can make it!
Australia Firearm Data Breach Shows Dangers of Gun Licensing & Registration
This is what happens when you don’t put your government in check.
Remember folks, they will never be happy until they are all gone. Then they will come after pointy knives, clubs, hammers….
Gun ownership in Australia is a privilege not a right and we in America reject that position because gun ownership is a right in America and not a privilege. Austria bowed to the NWO crap and Americans never will .
In addition to a mandatory “Fit and Proper Person” test, one is also required to undergo mandatory health assessments for all new and renewing license holders.
Oh and don’t forget the most ludicrous requirement…
One must provide a “genuine reason” for owning a firearm, which cannot be self-defense.
This is our future if we do not exercise our right to vote.
We have the same problem here in a different way. We cannot travel in places because they have been blocked off because others trashed the place so we are paying the price for their actions.
The left wants to apply the same rules to mass shooting and take away our AR’s and “large capacity magazines” because of what others have done with them. The ironic part of that, is that it is there party are the ones that are doing it.
I am tired of being penalized for other people’s actions.
Wow video pulled. What do they not want us to see those scary bolt action rifles and break open shotguns???. Freedom isn’t free! Grow some balls
The morons running the country won’t realize just how stupid their policies are until they’re awaiting execution by the government of New China…
Sovereign citizens are generally fruit loops, not in that they are wrong, but in that that they think they won’t get crushed for going head to head with the state. However… These guys all complied with the law. They had the licenses. They only owned the allowed guns. And there were even a couple of bows confiscated in the video. No word from the authorities about all the smuggled in guns that accompany illegal muslim immigrants to Australia. No word about all the garage machine shop guns being used by criminals and gangs. No, it’s much safer to hassle a… Read more »
Cops, no matter what country you are in, are NOT your friends. They are just low IQ thugs doing the bidding of their masters.
Didn’t Australia use to have men?