PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has defended his clay pigeon shooting record after the anti-gun lobby called on him to set an example.

Gun Control Australia's Roland Browne has backed a Greens policy on banning semi-automatic handguns, and demanded Mr Rudd show leadership with his own sports shooting.

The prime minister revealed during his first stint as prime minister that he enjoyed shooting clay targets.

But he told reporters in Launceston he hadn't been clay pigeon shooting for six or seven years.

"I think we've got the balance right with Australia's gun control," he said.

Mr Rudd said he was open to considering further changes.

"We've learnt a lot from events here in Tasmania," Mr Rudd said.

"We learnt a lot from what happened at Port Arthur and Mr Howard's response to it."

Mr Browne was in Hobart to support a $350 million plan by the Greens to buy back semi-automatic handguns.

"Showing leadership from Mr Rudd would be demonstrating that participating in target shooting with handguns can be done and should be done with a single-shot handgun," he told reporters.

"That will promote and enhance public safety and he can show the way."

Mr Browne criticised both major parties for failing to ban the weapons, and linked the influence of the gun lobby with Mr Rudd's shooting hobby.

"That might explain why there's limited movement in the Labor party to controlling handguns," he said.

Gun Control Australia says there are 172,000 handguns in Australia after an "oversight" did not include them in a ban after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.

Mr Browne said semi-automatic handguns had been responsible for a mass shooting at Virginia Tech in the US in 2012 and at Dunblane in Scotland in 1996.

"The cold, clear reality is that we should act now and not wait for the inevitable mass shooting," he said.

The Greens policy was being highlighted by their candidate for the Tasmanian seat of Denison, Anna Reynolds.

Tasmania's gun ownership is twice the national average, Gun Control Australia says.

A recent spate of thefts in the state has meant firearms are stolen at three times the national average.

Originally published as Rudd defends clay shooting record