Proactive release of papers regarding the Arms Amendment Regulations 2022: Clubs and Ranges

In 2020, a number of changes were made to the Arms Act 1983 through the Arms Legislation Act 2020 to strengthen the control and regulation of firearms in New Zealand. On 24 June 2022 changes to the Arms Act, specifically Part 6 Shooting clubs and shooting ranges came into force.

To support the changes to the Arms Act, Police worked with the firearms community to develop proposed regulations. On 23 March 2022, Police released the discussion document relating to these proposed regulations, with submissions closing on 4 May 2022. The Amendment Regulations 2022 were published on 14 November 2022 and came into force on 15 December 2022 and are available on the New Zealand Legislation website.

The following papers being released relate to the discussion document on the clubs and ranges regulations and the policy process undertaken to develop the discussion document for the public consultation on the regulations.

Certain information in the documents has been withheld under one or more of the following sections of the Official Information Act 1982:

• Information is withheld under section 9(2)(a) to protect the privacy of natural persons.
• Information is withheld under section 6(c) as the making available of that information would be likely to prejudice the maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation, and detection of offences, and the right to a fair trial.
• Information is withheld under section 9(2)(f)(iv) where the withholding of the information is necessary to maintain the constitutional conventions for the time being which protect the confidentiality of advice tendered by Ministers of the Crown and officials.