A sharp rise in the number of registered guns in Canberra reflects a boom in recreational shooting and should not be seen as a concern, shooting clubs say.

There are currently 19,200 registered firearms in the ACT, up from 17,000 in 2013.

While gun control advocates have condemned that number as extraordinarily high for a primarily urban area, sporting shooters said they were surprised the figure was so low given a boom in the sport.

Sporting Shooters Association of the ACT (SSAA) president David True said membership of the SSAA had risen by roughly 10 per cent each year for a number of years.

He said the current number sat at just under 4,000 members.

Mr True said all gun owners using firearms for recreational purposes had to be active members of a gun club and the demand had been overwhelming.

"We run safety courses each month and anywhere from 30 to 40 people each month get a firearm's licence," he said.

The Majura Park Gun Club has also noticed a surge in Canberrans keen to test their clay-target shooting skills.

Sporting shooter Tanya Skinner said she hoped more young people would take up the opportunity.

The Canberra teenager is one of the best female clay-target shooters in the country.

"I'm a bit of a minority. If you go to a national event you might get 70 girls there. But overall there are a lot less females than males," she said.

"I think it would be really good to get more young people into it because we're the future of the sport."

Canberra teenager and clay-target shooter Tanya Skinner hopes more young people will take up the sport. ( ABC News: Andrew Kennedy )

Firearms could fall into wrong hands: gun control advocates

While firearms used by sports shooters and on ACT gun ranges are legally bought and registered, gun control advocates worry about them falling into the wrong hands.

Gun Control Australia spokesman Roland Brown said guns were a target for thieves.

"The number of guns stolen in Australia is in the order of about 1,800 to 2,000 each year," he said.

He said of particular concern were homes with more than one firearm, with some estimates suggesting the average Canberra gun owner had about 10 firearms in their possession.

"We're seeing arsenals accumulating in urban areas. It's a problem not just in Canberra - we're seeing it in different parts of Australia," he said.

Sporting Shooters Association of the ACT president David True said membership numbers were growing steadily each year. ( ABC News: Tom Lowrey )

One offence involving a gun per week in ACT

In recent years, the number of offences involving a firearm in the ACT had tracked at roughly one per week.

The number of firearms seized in Canberra had been steadily growing since 2011, before an unexplained surge in 2015 when 356 guns were seized.

Number of firearms seized by ACT police 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Total 107 110 148 167 356 888 Source: ACT Policing

But criminologist Jason Payne said the level of gun theft in the ACT was not unusually high and it seemed even when they were stolen, they were not ending up at crime scenes.

"To suggest that somehow an increase in the use of firearms for recreational purposes would somehow translate to an increase in the rate at which firearms are used illegally, is I think a bit of a stretch in this particular case," he said.

"Where a firearm is stolen from a registered user, it very infrequently actually appears in at least the utilisation in a crime at a later point."

Former ACT police minister Gary Humphries said while many responsible firearm owners felt unfairly targeted by gun laws, there was no alternative.

Mr Humphries was one of the architects of the most significant reforms to firearm ownership, brought in after the Port Arthur massacre.

"Unfortunately, it wasn't possible then, nor is it possible now, to separate the majority who lawfully use their guns from those who unlawfully would use their guns in certain circumstances to commit crimes," he said.

"So therefore restrictions on gun ownership and use across the board is the only effective way of preventing those guns from being misused by a minority."