I love guns. I love shooting them. But America, you have a problem

America, your “constitutional right” to bear arms is treated with all the entitlement of a spoiled child, and ignores the responsibilities of owning a deadly weapon.

I love guns. But America, you have a problem

I love guns.

I love talking about them, reading about them, and I especially love shooting them.

I love shooting targets, shooting tin cans, or shooting animals. Pigs, goats, rabbits, hares, foxes, cats — I’ve shot them all.

I love the build-up before we go out hunting — prepping the camping gear, packing our truck, setting up camp.

I love tracking the feral animals we shoot and I love spotlight shooting at night. I love sitting in the bush waiting to hear the snuffling of a pig as it ambles down to the water’s edge. I love chasing down a mob of goats as they run through the scrub.

I’m a law abiding, licenced shooter and I love guns.

But America, you have a gun problem. A deadly serious problem that is killing people daily and often doing so, as it has this week, in large numbers at a time.

Your “constitutional right” to bear arms is treated with all the entitlement of a spoiled child, and one that is totally devoid of any understanding of the kind of responsibilities that should come with owning a deadly weapon.

Your defence of these rights has some of the most flawed logic imaginable. Fiction writers couldn’t devise some of the justifications I’ve heard for your approach to gun ownership simply because of the utter disconnect from reality.

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” ... we’ve all heard that line, usually from some gun lobby idiot in the wake of the whatever the latest totally preventable mass shooting is.

People kill people without guns of course. But they kill a lot more people far more easily with readily available semi-automatic pistols and rifles.

And if it’s a matter of people killing people, not guns, then the question must be asked — America, why are you breeding so many killers?

The statistics are well told about America’s gun problem — over 30,000 people killed every year. You’re more likely to be killed from gun related violence in the US than you are in many developing nations.

I’m not a fan of President Obama, but he hit the nail on the head with his address after the latest mass shooting in Oregon.

America is the only developed country with this problem. And it can be addressed. It just takes the will to do it. Just ask John Howard.

I got my gun licence a few years back and the process was long and painful, largely thanks to the reforms undertaken in 1996, post-Port Arthur Massacre.

Here in my home state of Queensland, I had to do a full day safety course, provided by a registered provider. It pays to be a member of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, who provide this course at a discount for members.

Once the course certificate had been mailed out I lodged my licence application online. This takes a minimum 28 days to be processed. The whole process cost a couple of hundred dollars and took over a month. And that’s just to get a licence.

To actually get a gun in Queensland takes longer. You must lodge an application for a ‘Permit to Acquire’ a weapon. You can do this at the same time as your licence, but you’ll wait an additional minimum 28 days for your PTA from when you receive your licence.

Once your receive your PTA you can purchase a gun. If you are purchasing privately the deal must be brokered by a registered broker and you still need all the relevant paperwork.

Once you’ve got your gun you better have it stored correctly. That involves a safe that is either over a certain weight, or bolted to the frame or floor of your house. And it better be made of strong stuff. There are strict guidelines on the kind of locks allowed, and who has access to the keys.

Your storage can also be audited by the police at any time, albeit with advance notice from your local station.

So only after at least two months and hundreds of dollars can you legally go from wanting a gun to owning a gun.

The whole process was and remains a massive pain in the neck. And I’m totally OK with that. The legislation works. The statistics tell the story.

Next time you hear Gun Control Australia or some similarly opaque organisation banging on about our gun laws getting soft just remember — it takes a long time and a significant investment to legally get a gun in this country, and the vast majority of law-abiding, licenced shooters aren’t interested in jeapordising that.

But back to America. Gun reform can and does work. What is broken in the US is the mentality that gun ownership is some God-given right that requires nothing from those who take part in it.

Also broken is the idea that when the second amendment was adopted in 1791, granting citizens the right to bear arms, the kind of weapons and ammunition available in 2015 could not have even been conceived of.

Single shot muzzle loaders were the latest technology in the late 1700s; a far cry from the AR-15 platform available with every possible piece of military grade accessory.

We don’t have to wait for history to judge the madness that is the state of gun laws in the US. We can see it almost weekly on our TV screens and judge it for ourselves.

America is broken. It’s time somebody had the guts to fix it.

Originally published as I love guns. I love shooting them. But America, you have a problem