But despite that rise, there has not been a corresponding increase in officers taking out or using their guns.
The figures, obtained from police under the Official Information Act, show the rates of gun crime went up in both 2018 and 2019.
Last year, there were 3540 occasions where an offender was found with a gun.
And in both of the last two years, the rate of deadly incidents involving a firearm was the highest it had been since 2009.
The number of guns seized by police is also on the rise, up almost 50 percent on five years earlier at 1263 last year.
An officer was attacked by someone wielding a gun 13 times in 2019, up two on 2018 but remaining steady over the past five years.
The data is also broken down by region, and shows Counties Manukau is now the deadliest for gun violence in the nation, surpassing Eastern, Central and Northland for rates of gun-related deaths.