A firearms safety specialist says the tragic death of a two-year-old girl in Auckland should never have happened.

Counties Manukau police have charged a 26-year-old man with unlawful possession of a pistol after he was taken into custody in relation to a death at a house in Favona Rd.

He will appear in court on Friday.

123rf Pistols must be registered in New Zealand but many other classes of weapons are not individually registered.

Police said the youngster died at the property in Mangere on Thursday morning.

The oft-quoted figures of around 230,000 licence holders and around one million firearms are an indication of the high rates of gun ownership in New Zealand.

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Some say New Zealand firearm policies are too lax and the legislation is easily manipulated.

In 2010, around 36,000 pistols were in circulation and 7,800 military style semiautomatics, a higher number of military style weapons since the much cited 1997 Thorp report, although there was a change in the definition of "military style" in recent years.

To own a firearm, a lawfully held licence must be obtained but the number of guns held under a single licence is not limited. There is a registration scheme for pistols and military style guns but not for other types, such as commonly held hunting rifles and shotguns.

New Zealand's homicide rate and gun-related criminal offending rates point to a downward trend, although police have reported an increase in armed offenders and more military style weapons being recovered.

University of Waikato Professor Alexander Gillespie said the vast majority of the firearm licence holders were upstanding and lawful.

The problem was the authorities had lost control of the numbers and the figures of 230,000 and around one million were guesstimates, he said.

Some categories of weapons, such as pistols and military-style weapons, were registered but there was no register for the remaining weapons.

Criminal use or acquisition of firearms was on the radar of the Government select committee, which is accepting submissions until June 8.

Weapons are obtained from two sources - either from people who are licensed and unlawfully selling them or people who are stealing them.

"The shotguns on the black market are notoriously easy to find. They are at the cheaper end of the market."

Police, at a press conference on Thursday, said the firearm was a shotgun but specified in a press release that a sawn-off, or "cut down", shotgun can be classed as a pistol.

Overseas, after horrific massacres such as Dunblane and the Port Arthur spree in Tasmania, public outcry and changes to public policy meant certain classes of guns were prohibited.

But similar weapon types were still available in New Zealand and the nature of legislation meant tracking ownership accurately was also hard.

"There's a culture change out there.

"We've lost control of the numbers. The only numbers we are certain of are the import figures. We know what's being imported but other than that we are not really sure what's out there," Gillespie said.

Firearm Safety Specialist is a Wellington company offering courses for licensed shooters.

Instructor Nicole McKee said there was no reason a tragedy like this should happen.

"It's really basic if you don't have a firearm licence you shouldn't have a firearm."

In 2010, police supplied figures to a gun policy research group and said the number of licence holders then fluctuated daily between 217,000 and 225,000 as licences were cancelled and expired.

The accepted figure for the number of guns in New Zealand also fluctuates because there is no accurate record, from around 900,000 to 1.2 million firearms.

For a country with a small population the ownership rate is high.

McKee said it was "terribly sad when you hear of tragedies like this."

"Part of what people have to do to get a gun licence is to undergo a safety course so they understand how to use and store a gun properly. These courses are free and teach the person to how to be gun safe," she said.

"Unlicensed people have a higher possibility of having a tragedy occurring, due to them not knowing the correct way of handling or storing a gun.

"If this behaviour continues we will have more tragic incidents like this one."

"People have to remember that it's a tool capable of fatal force and that becomes a stronger possibility when people don't understand how to use a gun correctly."