WANT to stop the spread of guns? Well sorry, but according to Senator David Leyonhjelm you might have a mental illness.

The firearm-toting Liberal Democrat senator calls it “hoplophobia”, a term invented about 50 years ago in the US to describe campaigners for gun control.

It literally means a fear of weapons and while it doesn’t rate a mention in the genuine clinical texts it is often loaded into the American gun debate.

And now here, where Senator Leyonhjelm says it is a “psychological condition”.

“These authoritarian types who don’t like guns … we call them hoplophobes,” he told ABC radio today.

“It’s a psychological condition. They don’t attack guns all at once. Like slicing pieces off a salami they go after them one by one.”

The slice he is fighting is a lever-action shotgun. Its importation has been banned, along with other shotguns with magazines holding more than five rounds.

And the problem for advocates of tighter gun control is Senator Leyonhjelm has the leverage in the Upper House to save the lever-action firearm.

He said today he already had a successful bartering session with former Immigration Minister Scott Morrison which led to the government imposing temporary protection visas in exchange for taking in more Syrian refugees last year.

The lone Liberal Democrat would like to see a greater intake now, and is suggesting their settlement be funded by further cuts to foreign aid.

Senator Leyonhjelm will keep negotiating and one of the bargaining points could be firearms.

He wants the Senate to overturn the shotgun sanction arguing, “I’ve learned over the years there is nothing as permanent as a temporary ban.

“It’s not powerful. It’s no different to other shotguns brought into Australia. They’ve been available for 130 years. There’s nothing special about this.

“This is an attempt to vilify Australia’s 800,000 licensed firearm owners by categorising their guns as dangerous and them as criminals in waiting. It’s unacceptable.”