Thread: Firearms license

There was a long delay autumn and early winter of last year due to some problems with the printing. Then things improved to around the 2-3 weeks late winter and spring. The earthquake did damage the printing office in Molesworth Street, Wellington. Then we had the annual Christmas holidays which leads to a backlog. The issues should be sorted now and currently I've seen an average of three weeks after vetting for the licence to arrive.

The average cost to the police for processing and issuing of an A category firearms licence was just short of $300 several years back; it's probably increased since then. There are hundreds of applications each week; sometimes each day. The only real way to speed the process up would be to hire more staff. The police budget is underfunded by the government and has been for many years so extra staff for firearms licence processing is probably well down the list of priorities. On the other hand if an applicant doesn't mind paying $300 for their FAL then I'm sure that would certainly help.

If you have any problems with delays don't hesitate to contact your local AO. The licences are delivered in a plain white envelop by normal post and it's always possible, though rare, that a licence could go missing.