The gun control lobby in the United States is looking for its Port Arthur massacre moment.

Obviously they don’t want another mass shooting. They seem to be having those on a daily basis. But a mass shooting that finally becomes a tipping point to tighten up gun ownership.

Every time someone storms a public place; a school, a cinema, the US cycles through the same conversation. When the evidence shows that fewer guns mean fewer deaths, why are guns still so easily available?

Which naturally leads to envious glances our way.

Former Prime Minister John Howard’s crackdown on guns after Port Arthur has become a defining moment both of his leadership and Australia’s history.

It’s two decades ago now, but fresh in many people’s minds. 28-year-old gunman Martin Bryant killed 35 people around Tasmanian tourist spot, Port Arthur.

Mr Howard took the lead and against a hyperventilating gun lobby launched the big gun buyback. The “mass confiscation”, as the US pro-gun lobby called it.

In the wake of the latest attack in the US — the gunning down of two television journalists — the US is once again talking guns and looking to us.

It’s something that President Barack Obama, who is in a big of a legacy-creating frenzy, has talked up more than once before.

Most actions have an equal and opposite reaction. Politics ain’t physics, but every time the gun lobby will fire up in response. They mobilise, they politicise.

media_camera People attend a candlelight vigil in front of the WDBJ-TV station a day after reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward from the station were killed during a live broadcast. (AP Photo/Don Petersen)

The US National Rifle Association published a rather ominous piece called Australia: There Will Be Blood.

They argue that if you take firearms from people, you leave innocents helpless against criminals. They take aim at the post-1996 gun law changes, calling them “Orwellian”, even.

The piece thundered that we paid a “massive price in liberty” once we lost our “gun rights”.

Like most pro-gun propaganda, it was a non-argument. We want guns so we should have them. Gimme, or I’ll throw my toys out of the cot. It’s only outweighed in its fatuousness by the argument that you should arm victims to win the fight. Schoolkids against mass killer. Sure.

However, Big Guns go large online.

Aside from the asinine arguments, they have some that hold water. Just a trickle, though.

One of these is the argument that the level of gun ownership does not relate to the level of gun deaths.

There is an ongoing correlation. More guns generally mean more gun deaths. But it’s not that straightforward.

Switzerland is usually brought up as cherrypicked proof that ‘guns don’t kill people, people kill people’.

The Swiss are gun happy. They have one of the highest ownership levels in the world. Gun crime — while higher than similar countries with fewer guns — is not as prevalent though. Experts put that down to the fact that most men have to go through military service. They respect guns, they’ve worked professionally with them. They’re not disillusioned, isolated kids getting hold of semi-automatics.

They’re not like America, and clearly neither are we, and that’s a good thing.

That doesn’t mean we can put the ear muffs on. Gun ownership in Australia is on the up. The stockpile in 2013 was the same as it was before the Port Arthur massacre, a University of Sydney study found.

A recent Senate inquiry found it’s impossible to tell how many illicit or grey market guns there are. More than quarter of a million was their best bet. Powerful crossbench Senator David Leyonhjelm succeeding in securing a backdown on a permanent ban on a particular lever action shotgun. The movement mobilises.

Some of my best friends own guns. I’ve lived with guns. This isn’t about farmers, nor is it about going off half-cocked. It’s about keeping the safety on.