Inoperable pistols gifted by FBI Director Kash Patel to senior New Zealand security officials, who had to relinquish them for destruction because they were illegal to possess, were revolvers inspired by toy Nerf guns and popular among amateur 3D-printed weapons hobbyists, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.
The AP first reported that Patel gifted plastic 3D-printed replica revolvers as part of display stands given to New Zealand’s police and spy chiefs, along with two cabinet ministers in July. Police documents released this week identified the model as the Maverick PG22, a working revolver modelled on the brightly coloured toy gun of the same name.
Pistols are tightly restricted under New Zealand law, requiring a permit beyond a standard gun license. Law enforcement agencies didn’t say whether the officials who met with Patel held such permits, but without them they couldn’t have legally kept the gifts.
After the officials surrendered the revolvers, emails between police leaders and firearms specialists confirmed the gifts met the legal definition of firearms under New Zealand’s strict laws. In New Zealand, 3D-printed weapons are treated the same as other guns.
Patel, the highest-ranking Trump administration official to visit New Zealand, was in Wellington to open the FBI’s first standalone office in the country. A spokesperson for Patel didn’t respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Expert said guns could easily be operable
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 armoury team leader Daniel Millar emailed his bosses to outline how simple it would be to make the guns operable.
“These processes are very straightforward 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”.
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The 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 September 25.
“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 the 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 armoury.”
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”.
Five officials received the guns
Three top New Zealand law enforcement officials said they received the gifts on July 31. Chambers was one recipient, and the other two were Andrew Hampton, director-general of the NZSIS, and Andrew Clark, director-general of the GCSB.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Defence Minister Judith Collins 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.
