Perth lawyer says police have ‘got this 100 per cent right’ on sovereign citizens gun raids

A leading Perth lawyer has backed in WA Police’s move to seize more than 100 guns from “sovereign citizens” across the state, adding he did not believe there would be much sympathy for people who did not acknowledge the law having weapons taken from them.

Police have laid a string of charges stemming from a series of raids conducted last week in an operation sparked by the shooting deaths of two Victorian officers.

This masthead revealed on Saturday police had conducted raids throughout suburban Perth and regional WA for five days, on people who had expressed sovereign citizen ideologies in line with that of Victorian man Dezi Freeman.

A sovereign citizen believes they are not subject to the law or government authority, and Freeman had previously expressed sovereign citizen beliefs before allegedly shooting two police officers dead in August.

Police said 70 searches were done on properties around WA throughout the week, which resulted in the seizure of 135 firearms and the suspension of more than 40 gun licenses.

Police confirmed on Sunday they had laid a number of charges over the seizures, and many involved breaches of WA’s strict new gun laws.

All up, police have issued charges of failing to store a firearm in a compliant cabinet, three counts of unlawfully possessing ammunition, two counts of possessing prohibited accessory – that is, suppressors – one count of failing to secure ammunition, one count of possessing cannabis and one count of cultivating cannabis.

Police also issued one charge of possessing a controlled weapon – namely, a crossbow.

Officers also revealed out of the 135 firearms seized, 125 were long arm firearms, 10 were handguns and two were suppressor barrels.

The raids have been met with a mixed reaction from the community, with some identifying with sovereign citizen ideologies referring to the seizures as an attempt to “disarm the population”.

However, Perth legal expert John Hammond told Radio 6PR he believed “the government has got this 100 per cent right”.

“I don’t think there’s going to be very much sympathy in Western Australia for sovereign citizens who do not acknowledge the law ... to be running around with guns, that’s the last thing we need,” Hammond said.

“The police commissioner has formed the view that sovereign citizens are not fit and proper people to hold firearms, and given what’s happened in the eastern states, he’s got every right in my opinion to be concerned.”

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said the operation had been sparked by Freeman, who has been on the run in Victoria since August 26 after he allegedly shot two officers at his remote property with his wife’s firearms.

Freeman has eluded capture and hundreds of police who have been searching the bushland in Mount Buffalo National Park in Victoria’s north-east. Sympathisers have been warned they could face jail if they harboured Freeman.

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