The 2025 amendments outline that Te Tari Pūreke must regulate across:  

• pistol shooting clubs
• non-pistol shooting clubs
• pistol shooting ranges
• non-pistol shooting ranges
• temporary non-pistol shooting ranges. 

To operate, a non-pistol shooting club must be enrolled and a pistol shooting club must hold a certificate of approval (Sections 38B and 38K, Arms Act). To operate, a non-pistol shooting range must be enrolled and a pistol shooting range must be certified (sections 38R and 38XC, Arms Act).  

In some cases, a shooting range certified for pistol shooting activities does not have to be part of a pistol shooting club. An enrolled non-pistol shooting club can have one or more ranges certified for pistol shooting activities. 

A pistol shooting club may not have a pistol shooting range on site, but if it uses a pistol shooting range for its pistol shooting activities, the Club must hold a certificate of approval issued by the Commissioner (Section 38B). Shooting clubs must be approved and pistol shooting ranges must be certified by Police to be allowed to operate – this includes open range field shooting ranges and private operators. 

New transitional provisions have been introduced on 29 June 2025, in a new Part 4 of Schedule 1 of the Act. These clauses 22 to 28, set out that pistol shooting clubs and pistol shooting ranges, and non-pistol shooting clubs and non-pistol shooting ranges, that were certified or approved prior to the commencement of the Amendment Act are to be treated as being certified or enrolled for the purpose of the Act. In practice, this means the amendments to the Act will only start to apply to Clubs and Ranges that apply for renewal of their certificate of approval or enrolment after commencement of the amendments, or to first time club or range applicants.

An association that a non-pistol shooting range is associated with may approve range standing orders for non-pistol shooting ranges. An association in these situations can only approve the range standing orders if it satisfies all of the following criteria. The association must be:

• an incorporated society; and
• is representative of a group of non-pistol shooting clubs across a region or nationally; and
• specialises in the discipline of the non-pistol shooting range or in the shooting activities carried out by the non-pistol shooting range; and
• has oversight of, and the ability to set rules for, at least 1 other non-pistol shooting range.

The associations must use set standards to assess whether to approve range standing orders. These standards either must be developed by the association or published by the Commissioner of Police. If the standards are developed by the association, then the association must make those standards available for inspection by any person on request and must review and update the standards at regular intervals. Regulations 28GZZD and 28GZZE refer.