This page is about a bill. That means that it's not the law yet, but some people want it to be the law. It could change quickly, and some of the information is just a draft.

Arms Bill

Introduction

You could also call this:

"What the new gun law is trying to achieve"

The Arms Bill is a proposed new law that aims to keep you and your community safe. It wants to make sure people who have guns are responsible and follow the rules. The Bill suggests changes to the current law to make it easier for people to understand and follow. The Bill has four main goals: to protect public safety, simplify the rules, and make it easier for people to follow them. It wants to make sure people who have guns are fit and proper to have them. The Bill also wants to stop gang members from getting gun licences and make it harder for people to get guns that can be easily converted into real guns. The Bill suggests making it easier for people to get and keep gun licences. It wants to create a new group to review decisions about gun licences. This group will help make sure the system is fair and transparent. The Bill also wants to make it easier for businesses that deal with guns to follow the rules. It suggests creating new types of licences for businesses and making it easier for them to import guns. The Bill wants to make sure people who work with guns, like museum curators, have the right training and licences. The Bill aims to create a modern and transparent system for regulating guns. It wants to help people understand the rules and make it easier for them to follow them. The Bill suggests creating new tools to help manage risk and non-compliance, like a system for reporting surrendered guns. The Bill wants to create a new agency to oversee the gun regulatory system. This agency will work independently from the police and focus on education and support. It will help people understand the rules and make it easier for them to follow them. The Bill suggests making changes to the way the agency is run and how it shares information with other agencies.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1533355-general-policy-statement.

This page was last updated on 8 December 2025 — View changes

Topics:

Crime and justice > Police and safetyGovernment and voting > Government departments

Arms Bill, or

"Proposed Changes to Keep You Safe with Arms"

Departmental disclosure statement, or

"What the Government Says About This Law"

General policy statement

The Arms Bill (the Bill) repeals and replaces the Arms Act 1983 (the Act) to—

provide for greater protection of public safety:
simplify regulatory requirements:
improve compliance.

The Bill aims to achieve these objectives through 4 themes set out below.

The New Zealand firearms regulatory system allows individuals considered fit and proper to possess arms items, subject to safeguards. A strong culture of community safety, supported by clear regulations, helps to maintain public safety.

The Bill strengthens this culture by broadening the principles of the Arms Act 1983 to ensure that any person or organisation undertaking activities covered by the Bill acts in the interests of personal, community, and public safety.

The Bill introduces additional safeguards to ensure that only responsible users can access arms items. These include preventing gang members from holding firearms licences, and increased regulation of items, such as blank-firing guns, which could be misused or converted into firearms.

To support compliance and ensure that firearms users stay within the firearms regulatory system, the Bill reduces the burden on licence applicants, licence holders, and the Arms Regulator (the regulator) through enabling licence extensions, urgent renewals, and multi-entry visitor’s licences.

It also establishes a Firearms Licensing Review Committee composed of independent members to review licensing decisions. This will increase transparency and improve the firearms community’s trust and confidence in the system.

Licensing is the primary tool for controlling access to arms items, supported by endorsements and approvals. The current system can be burdensome on the regulator, licence applicants, and licence holders.

The Bill simplifies regulatory settings while maintaining safety standards. Key changes include—

replacing dealer’s licences with business licences, which focus on commercial or specialist activities and have longer duration:
improving importing processes:
no longer requiring employees of licensed businesses to have endorsements on their personal licences:
introducing specialist licence classes for museum curators and their employees:
establishing an approvals scheme for ammunition sellers:
updating endorsement settings for animal and biosecurity controllers:
updating endorsement settings for firearm collectors.

A modern, transparent regulatory system helps licence holders understand and meet their obligations, while providing tools to manage risk and non-compliance.

This Bill improves understanding by clarifying regulatory requirements and introducing additional graduated, proportionate enforcement tools. Related changes include—

requiring business licence holders to notify the regulator of surrendered arms items:
introducing processes to bring unlawful firearms into lawful possession:
establishing an infringement offence regime and making adjustments to the suspension regime:
updating offences and penalties to ensure that they are modern, address legislative gaps, and respond to emerging technology such as 3D printing.

Improving the delivery and oversight of the firearms regulatory regime is key to building public trust and confidence in the system.

The Bill establishes a new firearms regulatory agency, the regulator. This agency will operate independently from the New Zealand Police, to enhance transparency and improve trust and confidence in the system. The regulator prioritises education and support as the first step in compliance, before enforcement.

Related changes include—

codifying the core regulatory functions of the new agency and the Police:
establishing a chief executive of the new agency who is appointed by the Governor-General and accountable to the responsible Minister for the agency’s regulatory functions:
expressly providing for information sharing between the regulator and certain agencies:
requiring fees to be reviewed every 5 years.

The Bill is structured so that it is easy to navigate and uses plain language, helping the firearms community better understand their obligations.