"Licenced firearms owners know that it is up to them to comply with the law, or risk being prosecuted," said spokesperson Nicole McKee.

"Members of our community with expiring licences are risking confiscation of firearms and loss of access to undertake their legitimate work needs, their sports and pastimes. Law-abiding by nature, our community is worried.

"Our inability to renew licences during the lockdown could see us charged for illegal possession of firearms. We are worried about being made criminals through no fault of our own."

Police have made some changes, such looking into alternative options to face-to-face vetting and deferring new licence applications and security checks, at least while the country is under alert level 4 restrictions, which forbes non-essential travel.

"If your licences expires, you should not be using your firearms and once the alert level lowers and restrictions on travel are lifted, then you should move your firearms to be safely and securely stored by a person who has a current firearms licence and apply for a licence as soon as you are able," police said in a statement on their website.

They'll continue to renew licences once an alternative system has been found, with priority given to dealers and employment-related licences.

McKee said it was pleasing to see police acknowledging the difficulties gun owners are facing, but says their suggestion of giving the firearms to someone whose licence hasn't expired brings its own problems.

"This may mean driving them across town when you do not have a licence to do so," she said.

"It makes sense to alleviate community stress by extending licence renewal times for those that have expired leading up to and during the lockdown by six months. This will have some consistency with other licence extensions such as those issued by the Minister of Transport and the Financial Markets Authority also having extended their licencing regime for six months."

Police didn't respond to Newshub's requests for comment.