An election promise to change Tasmania's gun laws has been abandoned, with the Liberal Government acknowledging the community's "deeply held concerns" over safety and confidence in the law.

The changes would have allowed some licence holders access to silencers and extend gun licence duration.

The controversial gun law policy was circulated to interest groups, including farmers during the election campaign, but only came to public light on the day before the state election.

The Sporting Shooters Association said the government had broken a promise. ( Pixabay )

On Friday, Premier Will Hodgman issued a statement saying the Tasmanian Government understood "there are deeply held concerns about public safety, and in an area as important to Tasmanians as gun laws, public confidence in our laws is essential".

"We have consistently said that we will not do anything to undermine the National Firearms Agreement. Our firearms laws are among the toughest in the world and that is how they should remain."

The Liberals had said the policy to relax firearms laws was aimed at sporting shooters and helping farmers do their jobs by allowing greater access to "tools of the trade" category C firearms, such as self-loading rifles and pump-action shotguns, and would have doubled some licences from five to 10 years.

The National Firearms Agreement (NFA) specifies that licence duration should not exceed five years.

Other promises outlined in February 2018 correspondence by then-police minister Rene Hidding to "key stakeholder groups", but not the wider public, included "an end to inappropriate delays and waiting times", a move to "establish a digital platform where every firearm owner in Tasmania can manage their own licence and registration."

Labor said the Liberals should have allowed the community to have a say. ( Pixabay )

Gun Control Australia's Roland Browne said there was "no question" that the changes would have contravened the NFA.

"It's good that the Government is listening to the whole community, rather than just the gun lobby," he said.

However, Sporting Shooters Association of Australia Tasmanian president Andrew Judd said he was disappointed the Government had abandoned the reforms, which he said were negotiated "over a long period of time" with Mr Hidding, police and stakeholders.

"It's upsetting that they're not following through with them. The Government made a commitment to a large proportion of the voting public," Mr Judd said.

Those sentiments were echoed by Shooters, Farmers and Fishers Party chairman Wayne Turale, who said there were about 30,000 licensed firearm owners in the state.

"It's disappointing to hear that the Government at this stage have decided to walk away from their commitment," Mr Turale said.

Embarrassing backflip: Labor

Labor labelled the Government's backdown an "embarrassing backflip".

Labor MP Sarah Lovell said her party had suspected the planned changes would breach the NFA if implemented.

"We said from the start that the Government should have walked away from this policy," Ms Lovell said.

Premier Will Hodgman (right) with former police minister Rene Hidding, who announced the policy proposals. ( ABC News )

"If they wanted to look at reforming gun laws in Tasmania there are ways they could have done that that would have allowed members of the community to have a say and have some input into that process."

"What we're seeing today is an embarrassing backflip by Michael Ferguson. This shows that this Government would say anything to get themselves elected."

But Mr Ferguson denied the announcement was a backflip.

"We're working with the Tasmanian community, we're listening and we absolutely respect the role of the inquiry and we think it's the right thing to do to let the inquiry have a red hot go at looking at the issues," he said.

Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff said it was fantastic that the policy had been dumped, but "we need confidence that it's not going to come back in some watered-down version."

The Government said it would consider findings or recommendations made by the Legislative Council select committee inquiry, with a report expected before the end of the year.

Since the policy came to light in March, the Liberals have had to defend the announcement, with survivors and first responders from the 1996 Port Arthur massacre among those outraged by the proposals.

In July, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) released a statement saying it had been "22 years since the Port Arthur massacre, if our gun control laws loosen, we will not just go back 22 years but the lives lost will tragically have been in vain".

"The Australian Senate passed unprecedented gun laws in June 1996 just twelve days after Martin Bryant used semi-automatic rifles to slaughter 35 people at Port Arthur," the statement said, adding the legislation had proven to be "one of Australia's most successful public health measures," RACS said.

The proposed changes by the Tasmanian Government "contravene the spirit of the National Firearms agreement and legislation which is there to limit access to dangerous weapons in the community", RACS said.

"In the 18 years prior to the introduction of these gun laws, there were 13 fatal mass shootings in Australia — 104 victims were killed. Since their introduction, there has been only the one mass shooting, in Margaret River. Australia acted and produced successful legislation to reduce mass killing by firearms. It has worked and continues to work."

"We live in a society free from the alarming gun violence statistics that is the envy of others and we are grateful to live peacefully without constantly fearing for the safety of our lives — and our children's lives," RACS said.