New Zealand's government will end the involvement of police officers in regulating gun ownership, an official said as she announced sweeping firearms law reforms.

The move is intended to ease tensions between the gun regulator and firearms owners, which have been fraught since the agency's creation following a shooting massacre at two New Zealand mosques.

The Firearms Safety Authority has overseen gun ownership since 2022 after an inquiry underlined the way the white supremacist attacker legally acquired numerous weapons without attracting law enforcement scrutiny.

A near-total ban on semiautomatics are to stay.

The changes unveiled in Wellington by Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee stopped short of what the police union and those bereaved in the Christchurch massacre feared: a r

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