An alleged Queensland Sovereign Citizen who did not believe the Weapons Act applied to him has lost a bid to overturn a police decision to strip him of his firearms licence.
A Victoria Police Senior Constable has been praised for the smart-witted way he dealt with a sovereign citizen.
Sovereign Citizen beliefs often involve contorted pseudo-legal arguments to justify a claim that most laws do not apply to adherents. Sovereign Citizens often employ exotic syntax particularly when referring to their own names.
In February 2022 the Queensland Police Service decided to suspend Nevin John Cartwright’s firearms licence after certain correspondence indicated he held Sovereign Citizen beliefs, the tribunal heard.
The previous month Cartwright had emailed Police Minister Mark Ryan, the tribunal heard.
“I Nevin-John ask that you issue me with all classes of weapons ownership … I also pray for an open and concealed carry permit as the last act with royal accent (sic) was the weapons act of 1973 requiring no licensing for men and women not persons,” he wrote.
Cartwright added that the acts and statutes “apply only to legal fictions and as I have left the necromancy”.
Further grounds of suspension included Cartwright attending Rockhampton Police Station and asking for the officer in charge to be arrested in December 2021, the tribunal heard.
In May 2022 police went a step further and revoked his firearms licence after Cartwright had sought a review of the suspension decision.
In a decision published Friday, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal found Cartwright’s application for review “lacking in substance” because even if his suspension was overturned his licence would still be revoked.
Nevertheless tribunal member Glen Cranwell said there might be “some utility” in addressing the grounds that saw his licence suspended in the first place.
“Mr Cartwright has evinced a discernible view that the Weapons Act does not apply to him,” he said.
“I do not consider that it is in the public interest to issue a firearms licence to persons who do not consider themselves bound by the Weapons Act.”
Cartwright filed “voluminous material” in the proceedings including a denial he held Sovereign Citizen beliefs.
He added that a birth certificate was a “promissory note to fraudulently turn a child into property of the Reserve Bank and bringing that man or women (sic) into corpus juris.”
Mr Cranwell noted that former Queensland Court of Appeal President Walter Sofronoff had previously described this style of submission as “a confused hodgepodge of confusion”.
“I am unable to engage with such submissions from Mr Cartwright on the basis that they are incomprehensible,” Mr Cranwell said.
He found Cartwright was not a fit and proper person to hold a firearms licence.
“Had I not otherwise dismissed the application for review as lacking in substance, I would have affirmed the decision under review,” Mr Cranwell said.