NZ Firearm Licences

Mark Hanna made this Official Information request to New Zealand Police

The request was successful.

From: Mark Hanna

Tēnā koutou,

I am interested in the details of current New Zealand firearms licences.

My understanding of the current system, based on the Standard New Zealand firearms licence page on the NZ Police website[1], is that members of the New Zealand public must typically hold a firearms licence before they can own firearms or use them unsupervised. Licences must also have a certain level of endorsement, which is applied for separately, before the licence holder can own certain types of firearms.

Although the purchase of firearms via mail order requires approval by the police, there is no register of firearms owned by members of the New Zealand public.

If any of this is incorrect, I would be happy to be corrected.

I would like to request the following information:

1. A list of current New Zealand firearms licences, identified by the following information:
- Type of licence (e.g. dealer licence, visitor's licence)
- Gender of licence holder
- Age of licence holder
- Endorsements on the licence

I believe that providing only the above information would sufficiently anonymise the information so as to not raise privacy concerns. However, if there are specific rare cases where the combination of all this information is likely sufficient to identify the licence holder and NZ Police believes this is not justified by public interest, I would be happy for age and/or gender to be withheld for those specific cases as necessary to preserve the licence holder's privacy.

2. The total number of firearms licence holders and the total number of firearms licences with each endorsement type per region in New Zealand.

If region data is not directly available I'd be happy for a substitute that could be used to derive this information, such as postcode, to be used instead.

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

Nāku, nā,
Mark Hanna

[1] http://www.police.govt.nz/advice/firearm...

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From: MCMAHON, Teresa
New Zealand Police

Dear Mr Hanna

Your request below dated 20 April 2017 is being dealt with pursuant to the
Official Information Act 1982.

 

Ministerial Services , Police National Headquarters, 180 Molesworth
Street, Wellington, [1]www.police.govt.nz

 

 

I am interested in the details of current New Zealand firearms licences.

My understanding of the current system, based on the Standard New Zealand
firearms licence page on the NZ Police website[1], is that members of the
New Zealand public must typically hold a firearms licence before they can
own firearms or use them unsupervised. Licences must also have a certain
level of endorsement, which is applied for separately, before the licence
holder can own certain types of firearms.

Although the purchase of firearms via mail order requires approval by the
police, there is no register of firearms owned by members of the New
Zealand public.

If any of this is incorrect, I would be happy to be corrected.

I would like to request the following information:

1. A list of current New Zealand firearms licences, identified by the
following information:
- Type of licence (e.g. dealer licence, visitor's licence)
- Gender of licence holder
- Age of licence holder
- Endorsements on the licence

I believe that providing only the above information would sufficiently
anonymise the information so as to not raise privacy concerns. However, if
there are specific rare cases where the combination of all this
information is likely sufficient to identify the licence holder and NZ
Police believes this is not justified by public interest, I would be happy
for age and/or gender to be withheld for those specific cases as necessary
to preserve the licence holder's privacy.

2. The total number of firearms licence holders and the total number of
firearms licences with each endorsement type per region in New Zealand.

If region data is not directly available I'd be happy for a substitute
that could be used to derive this information, such as postcode, to be
used instead.

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

Nāku, nā,
Mark Hanna

[1] [2] 
http://www.police.govt.nz/advice/firearm...
 

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From: Mark Hanna

Tēnā koe,

A response to this request was due by law on the 19th of May at the latest. However, it is now the 22nd of May and I have not received a response.

Please send the response as soon as possible. If it has been sent already, please check that it was sent to the correct email address and try to re-send it.

Nāku, nā,
Mark Hanna

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From: MCMAHON, Teresa
New Zealand Police

Dear Mr Hanna
Your reply is at the last stage of review and should be with you in the next day or two. I apologise for the delay and remind you of your right to complain to the Ombudsman.
Yours sincerely
T McMahon
Ministerial Services
Police National Headquarters

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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()

I have laid the following complaint with the Ombudsman:

Tēnā koe,

I would like to lodge a formal complaint regarding an overdue response to a request for official information.

The NZ Police received a request for official information from me on 2017/04/20. The final day of the 20 working days allowable by the Official Information Act was 2017/05/19, however this date has now passed and I have not yet received a response.

Here is a brief timeline of all correspondence regarding this request to date:

2017/04/20 - The NZ Police received my request
2017/04/24 - I received an acknowledgement of receipt of my request from the NZ Police
2017/05/22 - I sent a reminder to the NZ Police that the 20 working day deadline had passed
2017/05/22 - I received a notification from the NZ Police that the response to my request is still being reviewed and will be sent “in the next day or two”.

There has been no further correspondence to date.

I have attached a zip file containing all correspondence I have had with the NZ Police regarding this request. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if any part of my complaint is unclear, or if you require any more information from me.

Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna

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From: Mark Hanna

Tēnā koe,

It has now been two days since I was told this information, which is already overdue, "should be with you in the next day or two". I still have not received the information.

Please send through the information without delay. Additionally, please explain the cause of the delay and the reasons why I was not informed of it ahead of time, as required by Section 15A of the Official Information Act.

Nāku, nā,
Mark Hanna

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From: MCMAHON, Teresa
New Zealand Police


Attachment Hanna Mark 16 7758 9 reply.pdf
1.1M Download View as HTML


===============================================================
WARNING
The information contained in this email message is intended for the addressee only and may contain privileged information. It may also be subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Policing Act 2008, which creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police property. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this message in error, you must not peruse, use, distribute or copy this message or any of its contents.
Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect those of the New Zealand Police. If you have received this message in error, please email or telephone the sender immediately

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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()

It's unfortunate that New Zealand Police did not provide the data in the format I'd requested. I've transcribed the numbers into a publicly accessible Google Sheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...

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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()

I have asked NZ Police for an updated set of this data: https://fyi.org.nz/request/9870-nz-firea...

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Things to do with this request

Anyone:
New Zealand Police only: