Mel Gibson's right to own a gun restored by Justice Department, NYT reports

April 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department will allow actor Mel Gibson to own guns again, despite his 2011 conviction on a domestic violence charge, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

The Times, citing unnamed sources familiar with the Justice Department decision, reported that Gibson, a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, was among nine other people whose right to own a gun would be restored. Their names will soon be published in the Federal Register.

Federal law bars most people convicted of domestic abuse from owning a firearm.

Gibson was sentenced by a California judge to three years of probation 14 years ago on a misdemeanor charge for hitting his then girlfriend. Gibson pleaded no contest to the charge as part of a plea deal to avoid jail time.

A representative for Gibson said he had no immediate comment. The Justice Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Times reported that the issue over Gibson's gun rights caused strife within the Justice Department because Elizabeth Oyer, a pardon attorney for the department, had last month refused to agree to restore the actor's right to own a gun. She was fired the next day.

Oyer, in an interview with the Times, said she had been told by a senior Justice Department leader that Gibson's right to own a weapon should be restored based on the fact that he had a personal relationship with the president.

Oyer said her refusal to agree was not a political decision, but based on her not having done a background investigation into Gibson's case, how he may have rehabilitated, and because she considered a domestic violence conviction to be extremely worrying.

Trump, a few days before his inauguration in January, named Gibson, along with the actors Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight, as "special ambassadors" to Hollywood.