Community Firearms Safety Trainer program

Complete and submit the application pack, including information about your firearms experience, facilitation and training background, and relevant skills.

Community Firearms Safety Trainer Application Form (Docx 4.75 MB)

You can submit your printed application form and required documentation and send it to:

Courses@firearmssafety.govt.nz  
 
We also require additional supporting information.  

1 - One reference from a recognised member in your community (firearms community preferred)
2 - One reference from a firearms licence holder who has observed you operating firearms
3 - One unedited video demonstrating your presentation skills, firearms handling and firearms safety knowledge 

Once you have completed the application and submitted your documents, they will be reviewed by the Community Education Review Panel. The panel is a collective of firearms community members and Firearms Safety and Education New Zealand staff who will assess each application against the required criteria and determine which applicants to recommend and progress to the next stages.

As part of your application, you will also progress through a Police vetting process. 

Following successful vetting, the Community Education Review Panel may recommend you for entry into the training programme.

The program is a mixture of online and in person structured training. Anticipating this to be delivered from February 2027, concluding in April 2027. Training includes:

1 - observation of a standard firearms safety course
2 - self-directed learning and online workshops  
3 - two days of face-to-face training
4 - delivering the standard firearms safety course with support from our Firearms Safety Officers
5 - quality assurance review to confirm readiness to deliver independently.

Once you have successfully completed and met the quality assurance standards of the Community Trainer Education Programme, you will then be approved to commence onboarding and transition into delivering Community Firearms Safety Courses.

Your onboarding will include support to:

- understand and meet data security requirements
- manage course participant records and administration
- strengthen your familiarity with course resources and training materials
- receive your trainer resource kit and access to the systems and tools needed to deliver courses
- access support for connections within Firearms Safety and Education New Zealand and other community trainers.