Gun law in New Zealand

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The gun laws of New Zealand are contained in the Arms Act 1983 statute, which includes multiple amendments including those that were passed subsequent to the 1990 Aramoana massacre and the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings.

Nearly 300,000^[1] licensed firearm owners own and use New Zealand's estimated 1.5 million^[1] firearms.^{[2][needs update]} Gun licences are issued at the discretion of the police provided they consider the person to be of good standing^[3][4] and without criminal, psychiatric or drug issues; as well as meeting other conditions such as having suitable storage facilities. Several different categories of licence are permitted, with the most common, "A Category", permitting access to sporting configuration rifles and shotguns.

Tighter regulation was imposed immediately after the Aramoana massacre in 1990, and the Scottish Dunblane and Australian Port Arthur massacres in 1996. After the Christchurch mosque shootings in 2019, legislation to restrict semi-automatic firearms and magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds, and provide an amnesty and buyback of such weapons, was introduced and passed by the New Zealand parliament 119 to 1.^[5][6][7]