Source: Radio New Zealand
The errors in issuing licences to ten disqualified people are “regretted and should not have happened”, police say. RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Ten people have been issued firearms licences despite being disqualified from holding one because of criminal convictions, a review has revealed.
Police say the mistake, which related to licences issued between December 2020 and October 2025, is “regretted and should not have happened”.
In 2019, following the Christchurch terror attack, police introduced a Quality Assurance Investigations Framework (QAIF) to provide oversight of the decisions taken after a firearms licence had been issued.
Then in 2020, the amended Arms Act expanded the reasons a person may be disqualified from holding a firearms licence. This included that individuals convicted for specified offences such as serious violence or drug offences, were disqualified from holding firearms licences for 10 years.
Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz
A briefing to Minister of Police Mark Mitchell by police, in November, released to RNZ under the Official Information Act, revealed that in September last year the QAIF process identified a licence application had been accepted and processed despite the applicant having a conviction of a “disqualifying offence”.
“The licence was issued ten years after the applicant had been convicted but was 12 days short of the ten years from which the applicant had been granted parole. Technically this application should not have been accepted but given the proximity to completion of the ten-year period, the licence was issued.”
The Firearms Safety Authority (FSA) then looked at all firearms licence applications accepted and progressed between December 2020 and October 2025.
Of the 92,000 applications, 10 were incorrectly accepted and a licence issued while the applicant was disqualified.
“The offences that these 10 people were convicted of included cultivation of cannabis (four people), drug dealing (two people), multiple drug offences (one person), assault (one person), unlawful sexual connection (two people).”
Director of service delivery Matthew Boddy said in a statement to RNZ three of the people were now eligible to keep their licences because their convictions were more than 10 years old by the time the matter was identified.
“We immediately contacted the seven others, cancelling their licences, and ensured we received their physical licence cards. We required their firearms to be immediately transferred to lawful licence holders, and we verified this was done.
“Refunds were offered for the licence fee they had each paid and we apologised to them that a licence had been issued when they were ineligible. This error is regretted and should not have happened.”
Boddy said none of the licence holders came to the attention of police, or the firearms regulator, while holding incorrectly issued licences.
“Since this issue was identified, the Firearms Safety Authority have required all staff involved in the licensing process to undergo refresher training. Meanwhile, operational and policy documents have been updated with more explicit detail around identifying disqualifying offences.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand