Understand the process and steps involved in applying for a firearms licence, including the information you must provide and the assessment and fit and proper person checks.
To get a firearms licence, you must complete some steps, including providing information about yourself, arranging secure storage, and undergoing assessment and fit and proper person checks.
The information below explains what you need to do, what happens after you apply, and how licensing decisions are made.
As part of your application, you need to provide the following information:
- Photograph specifications
- Identity documents
- Employment and education details
- Reason for possessing firearms
- Personal history details
- Information about your referees
- Former spouses or partners
You need to prepare your secure storage arrangements, including:
- Safe storage for your firearms and ammunition
- People who have access to your firearms storage locations
You need to Apply or reapply for a firearms licence
Firearms Safety and Education NZ will carry out further checks to assess if you are fit and proper to hold a licence.
This includes:
- reviewing previous applications
- requesting medical information where required
- considering the applicant's completed courses and training.
- interviewing your referees
- inspecting your firearms and ammunition storage facilities, such as a gun safe or strong room.
You must supply a recent, good quality digital photograph that is a good likeness of yourself. A scanned copy of a photograph will not be accepted.
The photograph must meet the minimum requirements. Passport photos from commercial outlets will typically meet these requirements.
This means the photograph must:
We will not accept photographs that do not meet these standards.
If you have a New Zealand firearms licence, you must provide a scan or clear photo of the following:
If you do not have a New Zealand firearms licence, you must provide a scan or photo of one of the following:
AND one of the following:
AND proof of address dated within the last 3 months.
You must provide details of your employment over the past 3 years, such as your occupation, your employer and how long you worked for them.
If you have studied at an educational facility or school in the past 3 years, you must provide information about the course and facility.
As part of your application, you must tell us about your experience with firearms and why you want a firearms licence.
You must also tell us if you’re a member of a gun club or shooting organisation, and if you have applied for a firearms licence overseas.
Firearms can only be possessed for lawful purposes, and it is up to the possessor to prove a lawful purpose.
Keeping a loaded weapon, readily available, cannot be justified on the basis of a claim of self-defence relating to a generalised fear.
Use of force on a person is normally a criminal offence. It would be extremely rare that the use of a firearm against a person would be considered lawful.
To understand if you and others will be safe if you have access to firearms, we ask questions in your application about your personal history.
You must provide information about any criminal offending you have been involved with.
Note: The Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2026 requires you to state whether you have a criminal record when making an application under the Arms Act 2026.
You must also provide details about overseas travel within the past 10 years.
You need a criminal history check from any country you have been in for over 6 months in total (not necessarily consecutively) in the last 10 years.
For information on how to get a criminal history check, see You may need to provide a criminal history check
If you have a relevant health condition, you’ll be asked to provide details. You must supply a certificate from your health practitioner that is related to the condition. You will be asked to provide the contact details of your current health provider in your application.
Please make sure the contact information you supply is accurate, as the health provider will be sent an email once your licence is issued, as per our obligations under the Arms Act 2026. If you supply an incorrect email address, this may delay the licencing process.
Depending how you answer each of these questions, we may ask for more information.
We will interview your referees to help us decide if you are a fit and proper person to hold a firearms licence. They do not need to be firearms licence holders.
You must provide the names and contact details for:
Your next-of-kin referee must be aged 16 or over.
They could be:
If you are 16 or 17 years old and do not have a spouse or partner, you must use your parent or legal guardian as your next of kin referee.
If your referee lives overseas, you must also nominate an additional referee who lives in New Zealand and knows you well.
Your unrelated referee must:
Your unrelated referee must not:
Note: We may request additional referees if we do not consider your nominated referees suitable. For example, if your unrelated referee is your employee we may request additional referees.
You must provide details of any former spouses or partners with whom you’ve had a ‘relationship akin to marriage’ at any time in the past 5 years.
Former spouses and partners know applicants and their domestic lives well. They may be affected by applicants having access to firearms. They may also have ongoing relationships with applicants through childcare and other domestic arrangements.
We know not all separations are friendly. We take this into account when we interview former spouses and partners, and when we consider your application.
You must provide details of all locations, including any mobile homes or campervans, where you intend to store your firearms and ammunition. Addresses where you store your firearms and ammunition can include your home address, a holiday home or a business premises.
We issue a firearms licence only when an applicant has secure storage for firearms and ammunition that we have inspected and meets requirements.
A firearms licence holder must consider all aspects of firearms safety, including the safety of people who may have access to locations where you store firearms.
Firearms Safety and Education NZ cannot issue a firearms licence if another person who is not fit and proper to hold a licence is reasonably likely to obtain access to any of your firearms or airguns.
You must provide details of:
If you list your spouse or partner as a referee, you do not need to include them here.
Firearms Safety and Education NZ will carry out further checks, that includes:
For applicants who have previously held a firearms licence, the vetting process should include a review of their previous digital and physical application files.
The application process requires all firearms licence applicants to complete a Firearms safety course of training which is conducted by a member of Firearms Safety and Education NZ (or a person approved for the purpose) and which is designed to teach the applicant to handle firearms safely.
As part of the application process, Firearms Safety and Education NZ may seek and receive any information necessary to determine whether a person is fit and proper to hold a licence.
Applicants need to supply the names and addresses of at least two people (referees) of whom inquiries can be made about whether the applicant is a fit and proper person to hold a firearms licence.
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