Police investigating suspicious firearms list

Police said the focus of their ongoing investigation is to understand how the list was compiled.

Police are investigating a handwritten list of contact details relating to firearms licence holders from the lower North Island.

The list with details for 20 people was discovered when Police responded to an incident involving people unlawfully on a property in Wellington last Monday.

It has since been determined the list of names relates to firearms licence holders in several locations across two different police districts.

“We have also determined the list was not sourced from Police records which have been reviewed, and some of the detail is outdated and does not match current firearms records,” police said in a statement this afternoon.

The Firearms Safety Authority, Te Tari Pūreke, was alerted on Friday.

Over the weekend staff found a number of people on the list appeared to have similar firearms licence types.

Te Tari Pūreke has begun contacting people on the list to advise them of the situation.

The authority is also contacting relevant shooting clubs associated with people on the list, to understand if their club records could have been compromised.

Police said the focus of their ongoing investigation is to understand how the list was compiled, including working with affected licence holders to identify possible sources of the information.

“There are several lines of inquiry being pursued. Te Tari Pūreke is urging all shooting clubs and ranges to check the security settings they have around information collected about club members and/or visitors, including historic records from past activities”

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.