Maze, Kerry and Yvette Issar. 2009 ‘Case Study of the South Pacific: PNG: National Registration and Licensing.’ International Assistance for Implementing the UN Programme of Action on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (UNPoA), pp. 18-19. Geneva: United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research / UNIDIR. 17 November

Relevant contents

National Registration and Licensing

The Police Commissioner is the chief registrar and keeps a summary of the records. The firearms registry, which is kept manually, has 28,000 firearms on record of which only about a quarter of the licenses for these are renewed each year.(90)

The registry office used to have a staff member responsible for following up with individuals that failed to renew their licences, but this has discontinued since that staff member's departure.(91)

There are no figures available for the total number of licenses to carry firearms that have been issued.(92)

With respect to requests for tracing weapons used in crime, the police make such requests about three or four times a months and it usually takes a week to search through the registry; however, according to the registry office, there is a 50% chance that no matching records will be found.(93)

The registry office expects to receive an ID photo machine to replace the current system, in which false pictures can be easily forged into the license.(94)

However, in general, the office is recognized to not be very well organized and it is generally overlooked in department funding cycles.(95)

Source cited:
90-95) Interview with Margaret Mangae, Officer In Charge, Firearm Registry, Port Moresby, 27 October 2008.

Last accessed at:
http://www.unidir.ch/pdf/ouvrages/pdf-1-92-9045-009-F-en.pdf