The following is attributed to Firearms Safety Authority Acting Executive Director, Superintendent Bruce Bird:

New Zealand’s Firearms Registry came into existence on 24 June 2023, and is mandated by Parliament to have all licence holders in by mid-2028. 

In the initial set-up phase, the Firearms Safety Authority expected errors in the initial data entered could occur. 

Around 1 in 3 firearms registered have required some kind of manual data correction or update following initial registration, and data correction is routinely carried out. The Authority has data validation processes in place to pick these up and correct them. We also visit licence holders when renewing their licences and visually inspect the firearms in their gun safes, matching them to the data that licence holders have provided on the Registry.

An example of issues identified through validation is that around 1.7% of firearms in the Registry are duplicate entries. Duplications are only temporarily recorded on the database as our Registry team review all duplicate entries to identify who is in possession of the firearm, and then update the records accordingly.

Duplication can come about for several reasons, for example, it’s not uncommon for family members or friends to both register the same firearm due to confusion between possession and ownership. That’s when one licence holder owns the item, but another licence holder is storing it and therefore has it in their possession. Both fill in the Registry creating the temporary duplicate entry. 

There are also situations where a licence holder buys a registered item from another licence holder and incorrectly enters the firearm as if it is an unregistered item, rather than contacting us to complete a transfer of an item. Mistakes can also be made when manually entering information. 

The Firearms Safety Authority is in close contact with the firearms community, and we’ve heard their feedback that our online system is a bit clunky and could be more user friendly. We’re prioritising that work, and Budget 2026 earmarked funding to make significant improvements to our IT systems, including the Firearms Registry.

We’re committed to working with licence holders to deliver simpler and better services.  The Firearms Safety Authority is working to ensure that when fully populated, New Zealand’s Firearms Registry will be one of the most reliable firearms databases of its kind in the world. We are on track to achieve that with just over 60% of licence holders having registered their firearms – more than 670,000 firearms are currently registered.