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Firearms Official Information Act proactive public releases (June 2019)

Firearms Official Information Act proactive public releases (June 2019)

Date Published: 
June 2019

In keeping with the Open Government Partnership National Action Plan 2016-2018, and as Administrator of the Arms Act 1983, Police is releasing its responses to some recent Official Information Act requests, where it is considered they contain data and information that has wider public interest.

For more information, go to Firearms and safety.

Reference

Date of request

Information requested

IR-01-19-5909 (PDF 690KB)

28 Feb 2019
  • How many incidents since January 1, 2018 were firearms presented at police officers? Can I also have this divided by police district.
  • Did any of the incidents involved licensed firearm owners? If so, how many?
  • How many were imitation firearms?
  • How many times were police actively fired upon?
  • How many police officers were injured in these incidents?
  • How many members of the public were injured in these incidents?
  • How many prosecutions resulted from these incidents?

    I also request all correspondence with and reports prepared regarding a national project that's being done on to gather more specific data on the number and types of incidents where firearms are presented at officers.
     

IR-01-19-7181 (PDF 687KB)

12 Mar 2019
  • The number of firearms seized from visiting ships, by year, for the last ten years.
  • The number of recovered stolen firearms that matched the serial numbers provided to police by shooting owners. By year, for the last ten years.
  • The number of recovered firearms returned back to their owners who provided the serial numbers.
     

IR-01-19-7578 (PDF 609KB)

17 Mar 2019
  • How many reports have you received about white supremacist/neo-nazi extremism in the past three years?
  • How many reports have you received about other forms of extremism in the past three years?
  • How many of the above reports related to persons who hold a firearms license? Please breakdown by license class.
  • A break down of all staff involved in the granting and monitoring of firearms licenses by:
    • Age
    • Gender
    • Ethnicity
    • Sworn vs non-sworn
    • Rank
    • Time in force

(please interpret "involved in granting and monitoring" as broadly as possible.)
 

IR-01-19-7586 (PDF 592KB)

17 Mar 2019
  • I'm working on a big feature for tomorrow's papers and online, and I've come across what looks to be an excellently laid out resource from police, on the parliament website, regarding the problem of illegal firearms in particular.
  • This document is likely a little out of date now though - the latest figures on it, going up to 2016. I was just hoping to check whether it was possible to get an update on some or all of these figures.
  • And on the number of legal firearms within NZ, I'm working to the widely-reported topline figures of about 250,000 firearms licenses issued, approx 1.5m guns thought to be in NZ. Is there anything else police might like to add to that picture of legal firearms?
  • Is it possible to know how many people roughly own Category A rifles, legally, which fall into the semi-automatic class? (Or is that we don't know, half the problem?)

IR-01-19-7765 (PDF 817KB)

17 Mar 2019

I am interested in information regarding the success rate of applications for firearm licences, and for firearm licence endorsements.
Please release the following information for the years 2015-2019, broken down by year, by police district, and by successful and failed applications:

  1. The number of applications for each type of firearm licence…
    1. where the applicant has not previously held this type of licence.
    2. where the applicant has previously held this type of licence (i.e. applying for a renewal, or their licence had expired).
  2. The number of applications for each type of firearm licence endorsement….
    1. where the applicant has not previously held this type of licence endorsement.
    2. where the applicant has previously held this type of licence endorsement (i.e. applying for a renewal, or their licence had expired).

Please also explain any relevant caveats that should be kept in mind when analysing this information.

I understand that some applications (particularly those made in 2019) may not yet have been fully completed, and therefore would not qualify as either successful or as failed. If the number of these applications is easy to include, I would be happy for it to be included. However, if it makes this request easier to process, I would also be happy for these applications to be excluded.

Please provide this information in a machine-readable spreadsheet format, such as CSV or XLSX.
 

IR-01-19-7936 (PDF 349KB)

18 Mar 2019
  • Are you able to tell me how many semi-automatic weapons have been given to the police since the shooting on Friday?
  • Could you break that down into how many each day?
  • In addition to how many have been handed in, are you able to tell me how many people have handed semi-automatic weapons in?
  • Also, how of any sort of guns in, including semi-automatics, have been handed in since Friday?
     

IR-01-19-7855 (PDF 349KB)

18 Mar 2019
  • The number of people who have applied for a E endorsement on their firearms licence, and how many people have surrendered firearms (including how many of these were MSSAs) since Friday's terror attacks in Christchurch
     

IR-01-19-7923 (PDF 752KB)

18 Mar 2019
  1. Can you please give me a breakdown on the number of people currently holding a gun license (known as ‘A license’?) and how many hold each endorsement on top of their license (B, C, E, D and F)?
  2. Also, can you please tell me in the last calendar year, how many people applied for a gun license, how many were declined, and how many gun license holders were declined a B, C, E, D or F endorsement?
  3. Can you please explain the role doctors/medical professionals may play in vetting firearms license/firearms endorsement applicants?
    On the firearms license application form under ‘What happens next’, it says, “Police will carry out an initial background check relevant to whether you are a fit and proper person to possess firearms or airguns,” and, “Police contact you to arrange an interview (during which we will also inspect your firearms security arrangements) after you complete the firearms practical training. We also interview your referees and complete any remaining enquiries,” and, “Police make a decision to approve or refuse your firearms licence application and issue your firearms card.”
  4. During any of these steps, is the applicant, and the applicant’s referees, directly asked if the applicant has any criminal, psychiatric or drug issues?
  5. What happens if there is a disparity between the applicant and referee answers?
  6. Who in the police makes the final decision on whether a firearms license is granted/declined, does the applicant have right of appeal?

     

IR-01-19-7926 (PDF 371KB)

18 Mar 2019
  1. A list of current New Zealand firearms licences, identified by the following information:
    • Type of licence (eg. dealer licence, visitor's licence)
    • Gender of licence holder
    • Age of licence holder
    • Endorsements on the licence
  2. The total number of firearms licence holders and the total number of firearms licences with each endorsement type per region in New Zealand.

    Please release all of this information in spreadsheet format, preferably CSV or XSLX.
     

IR-01-19-8110 (PDF 341KB)

18 Mar 2019

I would be most grateful if you could provide me with the number of women who have been issued with a firearms licences for each of the past five years. For context, please also provide me with the total granted in each of the years.
 

IR-01-19-10002 (PDF 686KB)

19 Mar 2019
I am making a request under the Official Information Act, for answers to questions about guns in the Whanganui policing area.
  1. Can you tell me the boundaries of that area?
  2. Can you tell me how many people have handed in guns to Whanganui Police since the mosque shootings on March 15?
  3. Also, what types of weapons have been handed in, and how many of each?
  4. And, if possible, what purpose the owners of those weapons may have had for possessing them?
  5. Can you, also, say how many people in the Whanganui Police area own semi or automatic rifles and pistols? Or have licences and endorsements that would allow that?
     

IR-01-19-9043 (PDF 674KB)

20 Mar 2019
  1. How many criminal incidents involving each of the following categories of firearm, legally held by a licensed owner, were committed by that owner in the last 10 years (since 28 March, 2009) A, B, C, E
  2. How many criminal incidents involving legally held, but illegally modified A-Cat firearms were committed by their owner in the last 10 years?
  3. How many criminal incidents involving any firearm were committed by persons not legally entitled to hold that category of firearm? (excluding illegally altered A-Cat which are illegal for any person to possess)
  4. Of each of the above six scenarios, how many of these incidents resulted in personal injury to a person or persons other than the perpetrator?
     

IR-01-19-8022 (PDF 816KB)

21 Mar 2019
  • In each of the last five years, how many firearms have been confiscated in Tauranga, Western Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Taupo and Eastern Bay of Plenty districts?
  • Of these, what types of firearms were confiscated?
  • Where were these firearms usually confiscated from? (Usually found during drug raids, or are they confiscated from vehicles, or while other police work is being undertaken?)
  • How many people in Tauranga, Western Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Taupo and Eastern Bay of Plenty districts have gun licences? And can we please have a breakdown of how many have which kind of gun licence such as "E"?
  • How many people in each of these districts have had their gun licenses revoked in each of the last five years and why?
     

IR-01-19-12358 (PDF 790KB)

2 May 2019
  • A monthly breakdown beginning January 2018, detailing the number of illegal firearms seized by police in the Counties Manukau Policing District.
  • Where possible, I ask police give an indication of which type of firearms have been seized.
  • A monthly and geographical breakdown beginning January 2018, detailing the number of illegal firearms seized by police in each NZ Policing district.
     

IR-01-19-12889 (PDF 337KB)

9 May 2019

Follow up to IR-01-19-1419 and IR-01-19-6719.

  • How many of the firearms that were not airguns/imitation were seized from dealers and how many were returned.
     

IR-01-19-13428 (PDF 682KB)

14 May 2019
  • How many firearms offences were police called to in the month before and after the Christchurch terror attack?
  • How many firearms offences were police called to from February 14 to March 14 2019?
  • How many firearms offences were police called to from March 16 to April 16 2019?
  • Please break down by region.
  • Please include how many incidents resulted in charges.
     

IR-01-19-15463 (PDF 342KB)

29 May 2019

How much revenue does the police get from annual firearms licences, and how much does it cost to administer the scheme (new gun control lobby group argues the firearms licence scheme is effectively subsidised by taxpayers as it costs far more to administer compared to the cost of a licence)? is it possible to get this info per year for the last five years?
 

IR-01-19-9874 (PDF 350KB)

2 Apr 2019

How many guns were handed in on average before the Christchurch attacks? Either average monthly or weekly figures for the last 6 months?