Firearms Registry Review Advocates Continued Use
The head of the Firearms Safety Authority (Te Tari Pūreke) is pleased an external review of the Firearms Registry has found it helps to protect the public from harm and that it should continue.
Acting Executive Director, Superintendent Richard Wilson, says the Ministry of Justice review shines a light on hard work behind the scenes to keep communities and frontline Police safe from the risk of firearms harm.
“The Firearms Registry is less than two years into a five-year implementation programme and it’s really clear what the benefits are,” says Superintendent Wilson.
“The Registry is an essential part of a bigger system to deal with firearms harm in our communities. It is designed to mitigate the risk of firearms falling into the wrong hands through greater transparency and accountability when firearms are imported, manufactured, bought and sold.
“It gives frontline Police access to real-time information to support risk assessments about firearms in a property or vehicle when they’re responding to critical incidents. It also supports the work of Police intelligence and criminal investigations.
“The majority of firearms licence holders are good law-abiding people. Unfortunately, there are still a few who divert firearms to unlicensed offenders. The Registry is a significant tool to support Police to detect this offending. Over time the Registry will increasingly make it more difficult for firearms to move from lawful hands into the black market of unlicensed people, including gangs, extremists, or criminals.
“The Registry also helps licence holders have more confidence when buying or selling firearms. They can check firearms have not been stolen.
“We know from daily engagement with licence holders that most are fit and proper to use a firearm, understand their obligations and have no trouble meeting them. There are strong levels of compliance with the Registry. I acknowledge all licence holders who have filled in the Registry so far and are doing their bit to make it harder for criminals to access firearms.
“We have just passed an important milestone where more than one-third (36 percent) of all licence holders have now entered their details into the Registry. A significant proportion, around 24,000 licence holders or 29 percent of those registered, did so proactively without waiting for an activating event. An activating event could be renewing a licence, buying or selling a firearm, or moving address.
“We have invested a lot of time and effort into working alongside licence holders to help them meet their legal obligations. The results of the Registry Review show the engagement and partnership is paying off.
“It provides a useful stocktake at an early stage of implementation and confirms the Registry’s public safety impact. We will continue to drive enhancements across the whole firearms system. There is always room for improvement, within our overall funding and resource constraints,” said Superintendent Wilson.
In summary, the Review’s main findings for the Authority are:
The Government has also made decisions around existing Regulations due to take effect from 24 June 2025. These are:
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