Overview

• Officers searched about 70 properties across metropolitan and regional WA and inspected 26 firearm storage units during a five‑day operation.
• Police said roughly 1,000 people in WA have professed sovereign‑citizen beliefs, with 70 identified as licensed gun owners whose properties were targeted.
• Licences were cancelled immediately for individuals who expressed such beliefs in court or police documents, while others were suspended pending fitness assessments.
• Commissioner Col Blanch credited tips from responsible firearms owners, noting the raids ran alongside routine compliance checks that also visited lawful owners.
• Police Minister Reece Whitby said the risk of allowing professed sovereign‑citizen adherents to hold guns is too high as the hunt for accused killer Dezi Freeman continues in Victoria.