Well, fresh off the back of the news out of West Australia that West Australia police are going door-to-door to people

that they deem to be so-called sovereign citizens, taking firearms and in many cases cancelling firearms licenses. I’ve had confirmation from the president of the National Shooting Council that in fact, the same thing appears to be happening in Victoria. And in fact, it’s even worse because in the case that we are aware of in Victoria that I’ll be bringing you the story of here in this interview, it is explicitly because of their social media posts. Uh, Peter Zabrdac joins me from sorry, excuse me Peter Zabrdac joins me from the National Shooting Council. Uh, Peter, thank you for joining me here on the Topher Project.

[From video] Thank you, Topher. Good to be here. [End video]

Well, this is quite a concerning story. This is going to certainly send a shiver down the spine of many Australians. We all speak freely. We think we have free speech in this country, but we have what appears to be, and to the best of your knowledge, the very first time we’re watching the police move in, confiscating a gun license, confiscating guns explicitly and primarily on the basis of social media posts. Tell us a bit about what’s happening here.

[From video]

Uh, okay, so the National Shooting Council and myself, we’ve been dealing with various license issues for shooters since we were formed back in 2019. During that time, we’ve literally dealt with hundreds of cases and been very, very successful in assisting most of those license holders to get their licenses back. Uh, we have never ever seen, on a Victoria Police-issued suspension and intent to cancel notice, the grounds being posted on social media, which is what has happened in this case. It is unbelievable. [End video]

I’m sorry to interrupt my interview with Peter Zabrdac from the National Shooting Council, but my name is Topher Field. This is the Topher Project and this is what I do, bringing you stories that you won’t find elsewhere and interviews and angles that help you to make sense of the nonsense that surrounds us. I am 100% viewer-supported. So, please help the Topher Project to keep going by buying me a coffee via the button that you’ll find at topherfield.net. And if you like my videos and my interviews, then you’re going to love my books. They’re all about government, power, human rights, and civil disobedience. There’s this, my first book, Good People Break Bad Laws. This is all about the role of civil disobedience in a modern society. Then there’s my second book which is Good Christians Break Bad Laws. This is all about the theology of civil disobedience and why Christians should be among the first people to stand up and say no when the government oversteps its God-given boundaries. You’ll also find the DVD of my documentary Battleground Melbourne. Now you can also watch this online for free at battleground.com. But if you’d like the DVD to put on your shelf, you’ll find this. You’ll also find all of my merch in a range of different designs in t-shirts and in hoodies. And all of that is available at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com. And of course, everything you buy is going to help me to keep the Topher Project going so I can keep bringing you stories and interviews like this one.

So without further ado, let’s get back to Peter. Now, I’ve actually read those posts that were supplied to me. I’m not going to show them on the screen here. I disagree with some of the opinions expressed, but I really don’t find that they were in any way violent, in any way hateful, in any way inflammatory. I don’t. In fact, quite frankly, they were mild in comparison to what we’re hearing from various groups that are protesting on our streets and burning Australian flags and even marching across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There are plenty of other people in Australia expressing opinions far more extreme than what was expressed online. Do we have any window of insight into why it is that the police have moved in on this particular case, this particular individual with these particular Facebook posts?

[From video]

Uh, look, I I don’t know what Victoria Police’s motivation is for the actions that they have undertaken. Um, I suspect there is a much bigger picture and a wider agenda and that is reflected with the comments made by the newly appointed federal police commissioner yesterday about they are setting up a joint task force with the state police agencies and they will be focusing on anyone that upsets what they call or what she called social cohesion. Uh, so in other words, if we don’t like what you say, uh, you’re a target. That’s basically what it appears to be a case of. [End video]

It certainly feels like we’re heading down the same path as the UK, where people who speak up about crimes are being punished more harshly than the people that are actually committing the crimes themselves. Now, in the case of this particular case, as is often the case with these things, the police have tried to muddy the waters. I’ve seen the arrest and the notification of the revocation of the shooter’s license. They list three different reasons to muddy the waters. The first reason that is listed is these social media posts. They also say that he’s no longer medically fit to hold a firearms license. And they claim that he provided inaccurate information when applying for a renewal of his firearms license. I’ve no doubt that as this story blows up, the police are going to try and use these as their get-out-of-jail-free card, their excuse. Can you speak to what you know about those particular issues?

[From video]

Look, the gentleman concerned was seriously assaulted, victim of a very, very nasty assault, and still suffering the effects of that. He’s been unable to return to work. He was working in the security industry. Was beaten up badly in a pub incident. Victoria Police ended up catching as I understand it caught the offenders, charged him, they went to court, got off with a slap on the wrist, which is nothing unusual for Victoria, but that left him with long-term health issues. He’s at the moment living off, I believe, off awaiting a payout from the compensation under the victims of crime scheme here in Victoria. Hasn’t been able to work for a long time. At the time, his license was up for renewal. I suspect and I know he didn’t have a full understanding of his medical condition because he hadn’t been successfully diagnosed at that point in time. When you normally renew a firearm license, you are asked on the paperwork this is across Australia are you suffering any psychological conditions or receiving treatment for such? Have you suffered any head injuries? And I suspect that that’s the grounds because he didn’t disclose, necessarily disclose, the full extent of his injuries through no fault of his own because, as I understand it, he hadn’t been medically diagnosed at that point in time. They’re using that as a pretext. [End video]

It’s very reminiscent to me of what’s happened in West Australia where the police have raided 70 homes of people they alleged to be sovereign citizens. And the best that they could trump up in terms of charges were six or seven, I believe it was, individuals charged with improper storage. They couldn’t find anything actually substantial. So that was the best that they could do. It sounds a little bit like the Soviets who used to say, “Show me the man and I will show you the crime.” They can just comb through things until they eventually find some sort of grounds. What is the National Shooting Council stance on all of this and what can shooters do? What is the National Shooting Council doing?

[From video]

Basically, the National Shooting Council was set up back in 2019 as an assistance organization for shooters that are in trouble. We get contacted daily for assistance, probably more requests for assistance than what we can help actively. But we try and help out wherever we can. And that includes providing legal counsel, providing advice, taking on high-profile cases where the police have done the wrong thing and making sure that stories of police misconduct go to air in the media and go public and so forth. So, this young fellow is actually one of our members and naturally, as we’ve always done, we’ll try and provide him with as much assistance in the fight to get his firearms licenses returned and get him back to where he was prior to all of this. I think WA was the guinea pig state and I predicted that this would happen. It would be the state that they would try it on in the first instance and if there wasn’t a significant pushback from shooters, they would go national with it. Now, WA is scary because the new regulations and rules over there in the laws, they’ve given the chief commissioner power to take a license away or refuse a license if they don’t like your political beliefs, your living arrangements, your known associations. I mean, not because, you know, you’re a sovereign citizen or you’ve committed anything. We just don’t like you. And we can say we don’t have to tell you why we don’t like you, but we’ve assessed we don’t like you. Therefore, bye-bye to your license and/or you’re not going to get one. So, and that’s the way it’s heading and it is deeply, deeply concerning and it will come. There seems to be an agenda across all of the states and, as I said, in my opinion WA was the guinea pig. [End video]

Well, you’ve highlighted to me something in Victoria that is very, very concerning to me and that is that you’ve uncovered the fact and I believe we can say that this is a fact you’ve got the evidence that Victoria Police actually have a LEAP file on every single gun license holder. Can you explain what a LEAP file is, what its purpose is, and the significance in your view of the Victoria Police creating such a file for every single person who simply has a gun license?

[From video]

So, LEAP, which actually stands for Law Enforcement Assistance Program, is VicPol’s criminal database. Um, if you have ever been in trouble with police, uh, all of your prior criminal history appears on the LEAP database. Um, what we’ve discovered is that every licensed firearms owner in the state of Victoria and we are talking doctors, lawyers, we are talking state members of parliament, we are talking federal members of parliament uh, because they hold a Victorian license, even if they don’t have any firearms, they are automatically put onto the Victoria Police LEAP database and a LEAP file exists on them even if they’ve never ever been in trouble with police. Um, as I said, a police criminal database file is created and continues to exist for, you know, for life on the Victoria Police system. Um, we suspect other states probably operate the same way, but have yet to confirm that. But we have definitely confirmed that, uh, is the case in Victoria with 100% certainty. [End video]

It’s extraordinary. It does feel like the surveillance state is ramping up. Although, we do have to be honest, this is nothing new. Uh, I know for example in my case that the federal police created a file on me back in 2009 because I was contacted by them in relation to some of my very early videos talking about water supply into Melbourne during the drought that we were having back then. So this is something that has been a feature of Australian society. But it certainly seems like it’s ramping up and when you consider that in concert with the announcement from the Australian Federal Police, which I am doing a video on as well. This does certainly feel like things have ramped up. This does feel like gun confiscation. This does feel like they’re treating every single gun owner as a criminal in waiting.

Well, Peter, thank you very much for joining me on the Topher Project. I’ll put the link to your website in the description of this video. And let’s hope that you’re successful in your efforts to defend this young man’s right to own and hold his firearms license and his firearms and that we can defend the rights of shooters Australia-wide. Thank you so much for coming on.

[From video] Thank you, Topher. [End video]

Thank you for watching my interview with Peter Zabrdac from the Australian Shooting Council. You’ll find links to his organization in the description of this video. My name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher Project and this is what I do. If you’d like to help keep the Topher Project going, you can do that by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net and also by checking out my books, DVDs, and merch at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com.

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