The Orlando shooting was the worst in US history; an act of terrorism targeting the gay community by a young man who claimed to have been inspired by Isis. But it was inevitable that the focus would soon turn to the instrument used for such destruction: the gun.

To those looking at America from the outside, it is a country synonymous with gun violence, with school shootings, with people who have a unique and unhealthy obsession with a object designed to kill another human being.

And after each of these horrific massacres, nothing changes. When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold slaughtered 12 of their fellow students and a teacher at their high school in Columbine, Colorado, in 1999, armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, 9mm carbine, semi-automatic handgun, and a sawn-off shotgun, nothing changed.

When in 2012 James Holmes walked into a cinema in Aurora, also in Colorado, dressed in tactical gear and shot and killed 12 people, nothing happened.

And when 20 children between the ages of six and seven, together with six staff members, were gunned down at their elementary school in Newtown Connecticut in 2012, nothing happened.

In the UK, the picture is a little different. After Michael Ryan killed 16 people at random in 1987 at Hungerford using an M1 carbine semi-automatic rifle and a Beretta semi-automatic 9mm pistol, Britain introduced the Firearms (Amendment) Act the following year, outlawing semi-automatic and pump-action weapons and forcing gun owners to register on a national database.

A year-and-a-half after Thomas Hamilton, a 43-year-old former Scout leader, killed 16 children and their teacher at a primary school in his hometown of Dunblane, Scotland, in 1996, lawmakers banned the private ownership of all handguns in mainland Britain. Dunblane was the UK's first and only school shooting.

But here are a couple of things you may not know: in the United Kingdom it is perfectly legal to buy an AR-15 rifle, similar to the one Omar Mateen carried into the packed Pulse club in Orlando at around 2 a.m. Sunday morning, killing 49 people. (There's a disclaimer, which I'll come to in a minute).

While President Obama has in the past proposed limiting the size of magazines that carry ammunition in the US, there is no such limit on magazine sizes in the UK. In fact, the AR-15 routinely uses 20-and-30-round magazines.

I'm telling you this not to shock you or make you pick up the phone to your local MP, but to point out the fact that most commentators who have chosen to wade aimlessly into the gun control debate understandably raging in the States have done so with very little knowledge of gun laws and gun culture in their own country, let alone in America.

Nothing has changed in America regarding access to guns since the Whitman's massacre in 1966

As a Brit who has chosen to make the US his home, I have written about the need for gun control before. I believe there needs to be urgent legislation in America and that the culture needs changing. Orlando didn't need to happen. Aurora didn't need to happen. Sandy Hook didn't need to happen. The first mass school shooting in America occurred in 1966 when Charles Whitman, a student at the University of Texas, climbed the campus tower and gunned down 14 passers-by before he was shot and killed by a police officer. But nothing has fundamentally changed in America with regard to access to guns since Whitman's massacre.

I'm also aware that if there's one thing that really irritates the pro-gun lobby in the states, it's the left wading in without the knowledge to back up their position. And there's something they hate even more than that: "limey" Brits wading in to a debate most of us know nothing about.

Piers Morgan, who has been extremely vocal in his support of gun control in America, has repeatedly asked why anyone would need a weapon like an AR-15. "The only civilians who 'need' an AR-15 assault rifle are those who want to commit mass murder,” he has Tweeted. “That's what they do. #killingmachines."

And without sensible legislation to keep them out of the hands of those who don't need them, that's exactly what they are. But that's not the complete story.

In the UK at least, it's the gun of choice for the modern-sporting-rifle enthusiast. Rifles like the AR (another common misconception is that AR stands for Assault Rifle; it actually stands for Armalite Rifle, after its original manufacturer) are generally used for target shooting and, in the US, hog hunting too. Where it gets murky (and, in my opinion, disturbing) is when you hear from Americans who want them to defend against an imagined tyrannical government – an admittedly vocal but thankfully small minority of gun owners.

Jon Hammond of Scotland competing in the 50m prone Rifle Mens Pairs event in which he won a gold medal at Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range during day nine of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games. © Getty Images

Yorkshireman Paul Oglesby grew up around guns. His father, a film cameraman, took him fishing and shooting and Oglesby told me country sports were in his blood. Today he runs Lantac, a UK supplier of custom AR-15s.

Oglesby sells fully automatic weapons to the military, and single-action models (on which you have to pull the bolt back to empty the chamber and re-load) to British target shooters who have applied for a licence. Semi-automatic models are also legal in the UK but they fire .22 rimfire cartridges – lower calibre bullets than their single-action equivalents. "Us Brits are exceptionally good [at shooting sporting rifles]," Oglesby told me. "We have some of the best competitive shooters."

Sensible gun control means those who enjoy using guns for sport can go on doing so

Oglesby worries that the demonisation of the AR and its accessibility in America will draw attention to the fact that the same guns are legally available in the UK. But Oglesby's point is that sensible gun control can mean people like him – who enjoy using guns for sport – can go on doing so.

Oglesby thinks we have some good and sensible firearms laws in the UK. "There are unsavoury characters in every country but the difference is that children here will never get hold of a firearm legally. In America, it's easy, and once they've got it, there's no restriction. They leave it on the draining board, on the fridge or kitchen table. You have kids running around on Ritalin and their parents don't even lock their guns up."

David Penn, secretary of the British Shooting Sports Council agrees that there exists a prejudice against modern sporting rifles because of how they look. "Modern high-performance target rifles do not look like traditional rifles," he told me. "They're high tech, with little or no wood. They look like something out of the modern military – like modern sniping rifles."

I asked whether the sport has suffered as a result of the seemingly constant news stream of deadly shootings in the US. "You do hear comments from members of the public; from people who don't shoot saying they can't possibly imagine why anyone would need a rifle. But those who do shoot can't possibly imagine life without one."

Jon Hammond, one of Britain's best competitive rifle shooters (he won the 50m prone position at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and is two-times Scottish champion) falls into the latter camp. "The guns we use are very specific competition-style shooting rifles, and they're essentially treated as a piece of high-tech sporting equipment rather than a gun," he told me.

According to the British Shooting Sports Council, more than 140,000 people are licensed to own rifles and pistols in the UK, and more than half a million people have shotgun certificates. UK shooters spend two billion pounds on goods and services and the sport is estimated to be worth £1.6 billion to the national economy.

Saying the only civilians who "need" AR-15 assault rifles are those who want to commit mass murder is pretty provocative stuff.