They share a name, and both espouse a love of guns, but beyond that, the National Rifle Association in New Zealand has little in common with America’s most powerful gun advocacy group.

The New Zealand organization, which has no formal connection to the N.R.A. in the United States, is the country’s governing body for the sport of long-range target shooting. It does not engage in the sort of political lobbying for which the American group has built such a fierce reputation.

And that helps explain why the New Zealand group’s reaction to the massacre at two mosques in Christchurch last week has borne little resemblance to how the American N.R.A. has responded to recent mass shootings in the United States.

On Thursday, six days after the Christchurch attacks, New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced a national ban on military-style semiautomatic weapons, on parts that allow guns to be modified into such weapons, and on high-capacity ammunition magazines.