Eighteen months after launching as a dedicated firearms regulator for New Zealand, the Firearms Safety Authority has recorded a big shift in trust and confidence in its work from the firearms community.

The Authority was launched on 30 November 2022 as New Zealand's first dedicated firearms regulatory authority. One of its early tasks was to undertake baseline surveys of support from firearms licence holders, the public, and its own staff. This was a recommendation from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack.

This brief report contains the findings of a follow-up survey that repeated the same questions, and it shows a significant uplift in the trust and confidence levels held by the firearms licence holder community – positive gains of between 15% and 25% across a range of key indicators.

More than two-thirds (68%) of licence holders now have trust and confidence in the Authority's management of firearms licensing (up from 42% in 2022); and 65% of licence holders have confidence in the Authority being effective in controlling the safe use and possession of firearms (up from 45% in 2022).