You need a police issued firearms license.
Only certain classes of firearm can be licensed.
For instance, fully automatic firearms are banned.
They can be used for just about anything except shooting humans… Targets, pests, venison back steaks, etc…
As they always have been in NZ.
Recently some semiauto's have been banned too by a Gubbermint that hasn't participated in any worthwhile public consultation and ridden roughshod over law obeying firearms owners rights.
That some classes of sporting firearms have also fallen into some classification that was directed at military style semis confirms their knee jerk incompetence in dealing with what was a tragic massacre of innocent ppls when the licensing and the system was really to blame.
As always, it's the nut behind the butt.
"A government that does not trust it's law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is itself unworthy of trust." -- Jeffrey R. Snyder, 'A Nation Of Cowards'