Emotion must be stripped away from public debate around Australian gun controls, a national policing summit has heard.

Samara McPhedran, a Griffith University senior researcher and chair of Women in Shooting and Hunting (WiSH), says emotions have muddied the crafting of firearm regulations.

"Unfortunately, many decisions in this area seem driven by emotion rather than informed debate," Dr McPhedran told police forces and counter-terror experts in Sydney on Thursday.

"And we seem to struggle to inform our thinking as the world changes around us."

But Roland Browne, the vice president of Gun Control Australia, says emotions are inextricably linked to discussions around firearms.

"The reason that (emotion) is a driver for a debate about gun laws is that fear is a driver for people's demands for change," Mr Browne told the conference.

"The demand for change in 1996 after the Port Arthur massacre was a combination of fear and astonishment, that people could go to a remote public monument in Tasmania and be massacred in that way.

"That driver is pervasive, and the effects of gun misuse are pervasive."

The two went head-to-head in a panel discussion on Thursday afternoon, which probed the perceived and actual risk of guns, regulations and government intervention.

Dr McPhedran said Australia's "public health" approach towards guns - which assumed prevention was better than a cure - silenced alternative voices and stymied proper scientific analysis.

She said there was no clear evidence that prohibitions, amnesties or harsh sentences worked, and argued a one-size-fits-all gun control model had sold Australia short.

"We have failed to have a healthy, robust, honest, evidence-informed debate around firearms in Australia," Dr McPhedran said.

"What we've seen in Australia is actually a very poor quality of debate around firearms filled with misinformation.

"Maybe the time has come that we need to grow up a bit and start having these discussions in a far more honest way than we have been."

Mr Browne, meanwhile, said it was far better to control objects capable of doing harm, and wants the federal government to clamp down harder on firearms.

"What we'd like to see is a ban on semi-automatic handguns and much tougher control on lever-action shotguns and the Speedline rifle," he said.

"We believe (handguns) are a problem waiting to happen ... that one day there will be an event involving a mass shooting with a handgun."