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New Zealand law tightly restricts pistols, requiring a specific permit beyond a standard gun licence
Charlotte Graham-McLayTuesday 25 November 2025 08:41 GMTComments
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Senior New Zealand security officials were forced to surrender and destroy inoperable pistols gifted to them by Kash Patel, a high-ranking Trump administration official, after it emerged the items were illegal to possess under the country’s strict firearms laws.
The gifts, described as revolvers inspired by toy Nerf guns and popular among amateur 3D-printed weapons hobbyists, were presented by Mr Patel, then FBI Director, to New Zealand’s police and spy chiefs, as well as two cabinet ministers, in July.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press identify the model as the Maverick PG22, a working revolver modelled on the brightly coloured toy.
New Zealand law tightly restricts pistols, requiring a specific permit beyond a standard gun licence.
Without such permits, the officials could not legally retain the gifts. Following their surrender, internal police communications confirmed the items met the legal definition of firearms, with 3D-printed weapons treated identically to conventional guns in New Zealand.
Mr Patel, the most senior Trump administration official to visit New Zealand, was in Wellington to inaugurate the FBI’s first dedicated office in the country. A spokesperson for Mr Patel has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding the incident.
Expert said guns could easily be operable
open image in galleryMr Patel, the most senior Trump administration official to visit New Zealand, was in Wellington to inaugurate the FBI’s first dedicated office in the country (Getty Images)In New Zealand, inoperable weapons are treated as functional if they could be made operable with modifications. In August, days after Patel’s visit, police armory team leader Daniel Millar emailed his bosses to outline how simple it would be to make the guns operable.
“These processes are very straight forward processes and require minimal skills and common ‘handyperson’ tools,” Millar wrote. He added that these tools were “a battery drill and a drill bit for the holes and a small screw for the firing pin.”
New Zealand’s police union said in February that the Maverick PG22 was among the most common 3D-printed guns seized by officers. Millar wrote that his team requested to keep one of the revolvers for testing, but the police commissioner denied the request and the guns were destroyed on 25 September.
“The first risk is that it can be made viable and it gets into the hands of the wrong person and it’s used for a crime,” said professor Alexander Gillespie, a lecturer on firearms regulation at New Zealand’s University of Waikato.
“The second risk is it just explodes because it’s not actually safe. There’s a reason these have been made in people’s backyards instead of coming from an armory.”
Online instructions for making the Maverick PG22 say it “does not feature proper modern safeties and should be used in a controlled environment.” It’s unclear who manufactured Patel’s guns, which Millar wrote had been “manufactured to a high standard.”
5 officials received the guns
open image in galleryFBI Director Kash Patel presented senior New Zealand security officials with gifts of inoperable replica pistols during a visit earlier this year (U.S. Embassy in Wellington)Three top New Zealand law enforcement officials said they received the gifts on 31 July. Chambers was one recipient, and the other two were Andrew Hampton, director-general of the country’s human intelligence agency NZSIS, and Andrew Clark, director-general of the technical intelligence agency GCSB.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Judith Collins, who oversees the military and spy agencies, also received revolvers in meetings with Patel. All five officials voluntarily surrendered the guns.
The New Zealand Police refused the AP’s public records request for photos of the guns, on the grounds that “releasing the requested images would be likely to prejudice New Zealand’s relations with the United States of America.”
Photos and instructions for making the Maverick PG22 are available online. The police didn’t explain why releasing images of an American official's gifts to his New Zealand counterparts could harm the relationship.
New Zealand has strong gun controls
open image in galleryNew Zealand bolstered its gun restrictions following a 2019 white supremacist attack on two mosques in the city of Christchurch, when 51 Muslim worshipers were shot dead by an Australian man who had amassed a cache of semiautomatic weapons legally (Associated Press)New Zealand bolstered its gun restrictions following a 2019 white supremacist attack on two mosques in the city of Christchurch. An Australian man, who had amassed a cache of semiautomatic weapons legally, shot dead 51 Muslim worshippers during Friday prayers.
The guns Patel gifted to the law enforcement chiefs were not semiautomatic models now prohibited after the Christchurch massacre. But there are many other reasons New Zealanders aren’t legally allowed to possess certain weapons, including the specific pistol permits.
New Zealand doesn’t have a passionate culture of gun ownership and the weapons have been viewed more dimly since the mass shooting. Gun ownership is enshrined in New Zealand law as a privilege, not a right.
The country isn’t short on guns and they’re common in rural areas for pest control. But violent gun crime is rare and many urban residents might never have even seen a firearm in person.
It’s uncommon even to see police officers carrying weapons. Front-line officers aren’t usually armed on patrol and leave their weapons locked in their vehicles.
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