The West Australian government are trying to prove that sovereign citizens are wrong by doing exactly what sovereign citizens said they were going to do.

Taking their guns. They are literally using people’s publicly expressed opinions about government as a pretext, a pre-crime to strip law-abiding licensed gun owners of their correctly registered guns. In a move that is going to be viewed by many Australians as proof that maybe those crazy sovereign citizens weren’t so crazy after all.

Now, before you come at me, I am neither a sovereign citizen nor a gun owner. And again, before anyone gets their knickers in a nut, oh yes, but what about Dezi Freeman? I have consistently condemned violence for all of my 16 years as a political commentator. And I explicitly condemned the actions of Dezi Freeman in taking the lives of two Victoria police officers. His actions, as I’ve previously predicted, are now the pretext under which governments around Australia are justifying even more crackdowns on our rights and our freedoms as Australians.

Now, initiating violence is morally wrong, especially if you’re the one turning a non-lethal confrontation into a lethal one. But also, as a matter of practicality, you do your beliefs way more harm than good when you’re the one who escalates. As we can see clearly in this case with Dezi Freeman, the killing of two police officers was rightly condemned in the media and there was an outpouring of grief and sympathy from the public. But predictably and right on cue, the West Australian government is now weaponizing that public goodwill, making it an opportunity to accelerate their pre-existing and ongoing crackdown on the people who aren’t the problem.

As we’ll see in a minute, the ABC coverage of this crackdown actually shows us clearly how absurd the West Australian government’s claims about these people really are. And I’m going to read through this article with you and break down the admissions made by the ABC and by the West Australia Police Minister and Police Commissioner, proving that the people being targeted in these raids are not the people that we should be worried about.

But before we get to that, my name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher Project and I bring you the stories that others won’t. This is not a story that’s going to make me very popular among powerful people in this country. But the truth needs to be told and the spin needs to be destroyed. I am 100% viewer supported. I don’t get a billion dollars a year in taxpayer funds like our ABC do. So if you appreciate what I do, then please buy me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. And if you like my videos, then you will love my books about government, power, law, human rights, and civil disobedience, which you’ll find along with my DVDs and merch at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com.

Let’s dive into this ABC article because I can show you in the ABC’s own words that the WA police are wasting their time and trampling on human rights while targeting the wrong people with these raids. More than 100 firearms have been seized in a raid targeted at so-called sovereign citizens across Western Australia. An operation that authorities say was sparked by the fatal shooting of two police officers in Victoria. WA police have identified about 1,000 people who have professed sovereign citizen beliefs across the state with 70 of those owning guns.

Okay, first up, how have they identified these people? Via social media posts presumably, along with their past interactions with police and with the courts. Of course, this sets a precedent that simply says that you can be targeted by law enforcement for publicly stating the view that our government has stepped outside of its lawful authority. That is a view that in one way or another would be held by literally millions of Australians. Sure, not many of us go as far as what a sovereign citizen goes, but if you ask almost anyone and talk to them for long enough, you will find at least one area where they’ll say, “Yeah, the government’s gone too far there.” Criminalizing that point of view is a dangerous line to cross, and the West Australian government has well and truly crossed it.

In his next two paragraphs, we get some details which put the lie to the claim that these people were anything other than law-abiding gun owners. Watch. The properties of these gun owners were searched during an extensive operation last week with 135 firearms seized and 44 gun licenses cancelled or suspended. Officers also inspected 26 firearm storage units with seven people charged with 18 offenses related to incorrect gun storage.

Okay, let’s run through the numbers here because discerning the truth in a report like this usually requires that we notice what isn’t there. 70 licensed gun owners seven or 10% of them have been charged for incorrect gun storage. None of them have been charged with owning any of the 1 million unregistered illegal guns which we have here in Australia. Now, let’s think this through. 1 million illegal guns in this country with about 20 million adults. Which means that in any random sample of 70 homes, you’d expect to find two maybe three, maybe four of those illegal guns tucked away somewhere.

And surely if these sovereign citizens are as dangerous and reckless and such a law unto themselves as what the police are trying to make out, then surely you would find even more unregistered guns amongst their number than what you would expect in just a random sample. And yet where are the charges? They didn’t find anything. And I think you can be pretty sure they would have laid charges quick smart had they found something. No charges for unregistered firearms. No charges for illegally modified firearms like sawing off a barrel. But also notice not one charge for resisting arrest, obstructing police, assaulting police. The police just showed up to 70 gun owners’ properties apparently highly dangerous people and the police went about their business and not one of the 70 dangerous sovereign citizens or any member of their families or households acted out in any way, shape or form that we have record of.

If the police rocked up to 70 random homes across Australia, what are the chances that not one of those homes would contain any one person who wouldn’t at the very least do a runner or try and barricade themselves in or resist arrest or something? They didn’t find drugs. There was no violence. There’s absolutely nothing except for a handful of storage-related charges, which I’ll get to in a minute. These are the people that the West Australian government wants you to be frightened of. And the media, well, they’re just playing along, repeating without criticism exactly what the police have said.

Like I said, the most important thing that you need to pay attention to when reading the mainstream media is what’s not there. Back to the article. Police Minister Reece Whitby said WA police had been gathering intelligence on people with sovereign citizen beliefs since the shooting death of two police officers in Porepunkah in August. Significant resources have been allocated to apprehending alleged killer Desi Freeman, who is a self-identified sovereign citizen.

Mr. Whitby said the risk of allowing people with such beliefs to own guns was far too high.

Except that that’s clearly not true. The police operation that was just carried out without incident is all the evidence you need to know that what the West Australia Police Minister just said is a lie. And yet he doubles down on it. “Not every sovereign citizen is a risk, but some are. And that is a risk we cannot take,” he said. “For someone who is a professed sovereign citizen whose beliefs are that they do not have to abide by the laws, how on earth can the people of WA entrust those people with the responsibilities of being a lawful gun owner?”

Except that you just proved that they did abide by the laws. And let me pause for a moment here and talk about these seven that have been charged with storage-related offenses because that is going to be used as proof that the WA police were right to raid these 70 homes and confiscate these guns because they weren’t stored correctly. But not so fast. The storage requirements for guns around Australia are absurdly over the top. And it is entirely possible for securely stored guns that are no danger to anyone that cannot be accessed by anyone except for the registered owner with the key for those guns to be stored incorrectly.

For example, you could lock your guns away in an approved safe that meets all of the requirements and yet if you did not remove the firing pins first, then you’d be in breach of the storage requirements. That doesn’t mean that the guns weren’t secure. They can be under lock and key and yet you’re still a criminal because the firing pin was still in one of your guns. Same with the requirement to lock your ammunition separately. You could have it all inside the world’s most secure bank vault. But if you have even one round of ammunition stored in the same chamber as the guns rather than being locked in its own separate box, now you’ve breached storage laws, even though your guns were for all practical purposes secure.

Now, I don’t know the specifics of these seven people that have been charged with these 18 storage offenses. Yeah, maybe their guns were actually unsecure, but we don’t know that from the charges that have been laid. That’s not a given. And I’ll note again that if their guns were actually out, well, it’s very clear that they didn’t touch them or do anything with them. Otherwise, the police would have responded. And you’d better believe that would be all over the news.

It’s entirely possible that at least some and perhaps all of these improper storage charges have nothing to do with safety and the guns not being secure and actually just have everything to do with the letter of the law, the crossing of T’s, and the dotting of I’s. The jury’s still out. We’ll have to wait until we get more details. But in the absence of any details about these charges, the fact is 90% of these dangerous sovereign citizens had their guns stored according to the letter of the law and 10% of them did not comply with at a minimum the letter of the gun storage law. That does not prove anything about whether these guns were actually unsecured for practical purposes or whether these people are in any way dangerous.

The Police Minister goes on: “We’ve seen some very tragic and serious incidents in other states. We want to keep Western Australians safe.

We want to keep our police officers safe.” I find this frankly disgusting. Leveraging the actions of Dezi Freeman to double down on West Australia’s long-running anti-lawful gun owner crusade is cynical politics and deeply disrespectful to Dezi’s victims, to their families, and to the million or so lawful gun owners in this country. Not to mention, it’s frankly slanderous towards the 70 people who were just raided without any incident whatsoever. The West Australian Police Minister’s comments are contradicted by the facts and are slanderous and disrespectful to both the living and the dead. But that doesn’t seem to matter to him.

As part of the operation, people who had expressed beliefs common to sovereign citizens movements in court proceedings or police documents had their gun licenses cancelled immediately. Others had their licenses suspended while police assessed whether they were fit to own firearms. WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said officers would take into account assessments by doctors, thought crime, mental health issues, and other specialists when making their decisions to cancel licenses.

“If you’ve made it clear that you do not abide by laws, there is no way you can be a fit and proper person to hold firearms in WA,” he said. “Whether you agree with the law or not, it’s irrelevant. It’s about whether you abide by the law.” Except WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch that you just proved that they were abiding by the law. The WA police are abusing their powers to target people who have been proven to have not broken the law.

This article said earlier that 44 gun licenses were suspended or cancelled. Now, let’s assume that seven of those were the seven that have been charged with storing their guns incorrectly. And let’s assume for the sake of the argument that those were in fact serious safety breaches and failures to secure their guns and not just letter of the law type lapses. Okay, that means that there are 37 individuals who just had their licenses suspended or cancelled for nothing more than their words and opinions. I’ll read it again in paragraph one on this image: People who had expressed beliefs common to sovereign citizen movements in court proceedings or police documents had their gun license cancelled immediately.

This is thought crime pre-crime being suspended or cancelled without having done anything wrong. People have been raided and found to have abided by the law in every aspect from having their license to registering their guns to in the case of these 37 people storing their guns correctly. They are being punished because the government doesn’t like the way they think. This is an abuse of the “fit and proper person” test that allows state police in most states to deny a gun license from anyone they deem is not a fit and proper person. And whilst that might make sense in the case of a person who’s been in and out of drug rehab or known with organized crime, it’s not appropriate for thought crime.

Firearm reforms have been introduced in WA that make it harder for people to get a gun license, with protesters claiming that the regulations are evidence of government overreach. Well, you sure proved those protesters wrong, eh?

Commissioner Blanch said WA police continue to support law-abiding firearm holders. Liar. Flat-out liar. You just suspended or cancelled at least 37 licenses which are held by people that you just proved were law-abiding firearm owners. Now, I don’t know what’s worse that a person in a position of such tremendous public power and trust would be so comfortable flat-out lying to the media, or that the ABC repeats these lies without even the slightest evidence of critical thinking.

“We estimate there to be just under 300,000 firearms in WA held by over 85,000 law-abiding firearms owners who use them for genuine reasons in our community that we support,” he said. “Sadly, there are fringe elements in our community that don’t think that way.” Except that you just proved that 90% of that fringe element have 0% of the illegal guns and have a perfect record with regards to their firearms ownership, including the storage.

And again, I’m going to say of the seven people that have been charged for incorrect storage, at least some of them will be having the book thrown at them for technical minor, relatively meaningless letter-of-the-law type storage lapses and not for actual substantial failure to secure their guns. The ABC are literally reporting these lies in the same article that proves that they are lies.

Commissioner Blanch acknowledged that some may view the operation as being excessive. You think? You’ve literally vindicated the entire sovereign citizen worldview, you Muppet. But he said the action was necessary to keep people safe. [….]. This has had no impact on public safety whatsoever. And the 70 homeowners’ response to the police operation shows that clearly.

In the last 3 years, six officers have been murdered by a firearm attending properties.

That is unprecedented, he said. Well, that’s true in recent times and it is tragic. But also, that’s the Australia-wide number. Australia with 25 million people in it. WA’s had none of those shootings. And to find the last time a West Australian police officer was shot dead, you’d have to go back to 1979. Since then, 23 West Australian police officers have tragically been killed. Most of them in traffic accidents, although some from a terrible plane crash. And the ones that were killed by criminals were mostly killed by being run over with a vehicle.

Now, that’s not to diminish the tragedy of those deaths, but it is to say that this statement by the West Australian Police Commissioner is a cynical exploitation of public sympathy, not a valid reason for clamping down on the people who clearly are not the problem. And just in case you missed it the first time I said it and you’re wondering how I know that these people are not the problem well, if they were going to shoot a police officer, they would probably have done it last week when the police came to their homes to take their guns for the crime of wrong think.

The fact that they did not, even when the West Australia Police Force gave them the opportunity and the excuse, I think serves as pretty strong evidence that they’re not going to do that. “We do take this very seriously when we conduct operations like this for the safety of police officers and the safety of our community. This operation was conducted with significant risk assessments and officers put measures in place to make it safe for everyone involved.”

Okay. But Victoria Police did the same thing for their raid on Dezi Freeman. The difference wasn’t the risk assessments or even the number of police involved. Let’s not forget that 10 officers were sent to serve those warrants on Dezi Freeman. The difference is that the 70 people who were just raided by the West Australia Police didn’t want to use violence because they pose no threat. They did absolutely nothing wrong. No running, no resisting, no obstructing except that allegedly seven of them may not have gotten their gun storage right. These 70 raids were conducted peacefully because the 70 households raided were peaceful and they were peaceful for no other reason than that. The police can’t take credit for that.

Commissioner Blanch said similar operations would be conducted across the country with WA ahead of the curve. “It’s probably the first time that we’ve really put effort into understanding the scale of sovereign citizen ideology across Australia,” he said. Those last comments are going to ripple across this country, confirming the worst fears of many people, including the sovereign citizens. It actually makes those crazy sovereign citizens look far less crazy. The West Australian Police Commissioner is condemned by the facts of his own raids. They raided 70 of supposedly the most dangerous people out there people who presented a risk that he said was far too high. And the best charges that they can trump up are to do with how the guns were stored. There’s nothing else.

Commissioner Reece Whitby has set a dangerous precedent enforcing thought crime, pre-crime, against law-abiding Australians before taking to the media to claim that these people are exactly the kind of danger which they have clearly demonstrated that they are not. I hope that other police commissioners realize what an own goal this was from West Australia and refuse to follow suit. But sadly, doubling down on failure is standard police practice in Australia. So I expect, as the West Australia Police Commissioner has warned, that we will see these sorts of raids taking place in other states soon.

And if that happens, I hope that other people who are targeted around Australia follow the lead from these West Australian alleged sovereign citizens and don’t give the state what it wants. Don’t give them any acts of violence to point to or of resisting or of obstructing or of anything. Show the rest of Australia, as these dangerous sovereign citizens in West Australia have already shown, that the danger does not come from them, but from a government that cynically exploits the actions of a few literally the actions of three or four Australians in the last six years out of 25 million people who have used guns to take the lives of police officers they are cynically using that, disrespecting the dead, as a pretext to take the liberties and freedoms of the rest of us.

I will certainly continue to follow this story, and if similar raids begin to happen in other states, I will bring you that story, too. My name is Topher Field. This is the Topher project and I help busy Australians to cut through the crap that we are fed in the media and by our politicians and our police commissioners and to make sense of the nonsense that surrounds us.

If you appreciate my work and the fact that I will bring you stories and perspectives that the misinformation industrial complex, also known as the mainstream media, would simply never have the guts to bring you, then please help to keep the Topher project going by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. And if you like my videos, then you will love my books. You’ll find them, plus my multi-award-winning DVD titled Battleground Melbourne. And you’ll also find my t-shirts and my hoodies and all my merch at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com.

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