Then in December, he allegedly sold a Browning .243 rifle and 20 rounds to a customer who did not hold a firearms licence.
Selling ammunition to someone without a firearms licence carries a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine, while selling a firearm can lead to two years in prison.
But for each of those transactions, the police have also laid fraud charges.
The gun shop owner is alleged to have used a document - the firearms and ammunition registers - to obtain a pecuniary advantage dishonestly.
When detectives raided the man’s Auckland home in January, they also allegedly found four firearms: an M22 AK47 automatic rifle, an Aero Precision M4 semi-automatic rifle, a Browning 1900 semi-automatic rifle and a North American Arms Corp .22LR pistol.
He faces up to five years in prison if convicted of possessing the two semi-automatic rifles, which became prohibited after the widespread gun law reform following the Christchurch terror attack.
Police also allegedly found 17 banned high-capacity magazines for the illegal rifles - some capable of holding up to 40 rounds of ammunition - along with a small quantity of cannabis.
The man appeared in the Waitakere District Court in late January but did not seek name suppression at the time.
He declined to comment when the Herald visited his home this week, then made an urgent application to the court for name suppression.
The man stated he was left “incredibly distressed” after the visit from the Herald and feared for his safety if his name was to be published, as others could also find his home address, according to documents filed with the court.
He was also concerned for his son, he said.
It is standard journalistic practice to visit someone’s home seeking their comment before publishing news articles.
In a press statement to announce the investigation, Superintendent Richard Wilson said more than 70 per cent of firearms seized by police are rifles and shotguns that can be obtained by standard licence holders, as opposed to being smuggled into the country.
“The dealer has (allegedly) knowingly sold firearms to individuals who are not lawfully able to possess them,” Wilson said.
Wilson, who is a director of the Firearms Safety Authority, said diversion of firearms will become more difficult over time with the introduction of the firearms registry, which doesn’t yet have dealer stock in its records.
When fully rolled out over the next four years, Wilson said the registry will help police trace where criminals have obtained their firearms from.
“Prior to the registry, a licence holder could sell their firearms to another licence holder but was not required to produce a record of who they sold the firearms to – meaning the firearm was untraceable,” Wilson said.
“The Firearms Registry closes that loophole and ultimately will make the availability of firearms to the black market more difficult for criminals and gangs.”
The specialist firearms squad in the National Organised Crime Group has identified a growing number of firearm diversion cases in recent years.
One investigation in Hawkes Bay, Operation Carbine, uncovered an ex-gang member who paid licensed firearm holders to purchase 21 Alfa Carbine rifles. The guns are desirable in the criminal community because they can be easily cut down to pistols.
Some Alfa Carbines were then fed directly into a gang confrontation between the Killer Beez and the Tribesmen in Auckland.
As well as the firepower already in the black market, an unknown number of “grey market” firearms are in New Zealand.
These are firearms bought by gun licence holders, which were then banned after the Aramoana massacre and the Christchurch terror attack, but not handed over during the government buy-back period.
No one knows how many exist but gun lobby groups have estimated there could be hundreds of thousands, which could then enter the black market.
The firearms registry, which was opposed by the gun lobby groups, will continue to be debated this year.
Act MP Nicole McKee was recently appointed as the associate Justice Minister responsible for the firearms portfolio.
In one of her first moves as a minister, McKee brought forward a review of the effectiveness of the firearms registry which is to be completed by June.
But the registry has only been running since June last year, and firearms have been given until June 2028 to register all their firearms, so at present only a small fraction of firearms have been recorded.
As an MP McKee has been vocal in her opposition to a firearms registry and other gun law reform, on the grounds that the new rules punish legitimate gun owners as criminals who break the law anyway.
Before entering politics, McKee was the spokesperson for the Coalition of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) lobby group.
Jared Savage is an award-winning journalist who covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006, and is the author of Gangland and Gangster's Paradise.
George Block is an Auckland-based reporter with a focus on police, the courts, prisons and defence. He joined the Herald in 2022 and has previously worked at Stuff in Auckla and the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin.
