The Daily Show interviewer John Oliver, left, with gun lobbyist Philip Van Cleave. Van Cleave said he is opposed to bans on assault weapons, increased background checks and one-hour waiting periods when buying guns. "At the end of the day, none of it works," he told Oliver. Oliver countered that Australia's sweeping gun reforms had been very effective, to which Van Cleave said: "I guess if we're going to go to Planet X and say, 'It's not the United States. It's some other planet: different people, different everything' ... but in the real world, with human beings, it's not going to work and gun control isn't going to work."

John Howard on Gun Control. from John Beohm on Vimeo. Oliver then played his interview with Howard, which he described last week as "an experience he didn't seem to enjoy to his maximum capacity". "Obviously gun control doesn't work," Oliver told Howard. "It can't work, it will never work – so how was your scheme a failure?" "Well, my scheme was not a failure," Howard replied. "We had a massacre at a place called Port Arthur 17 years ago and there have been none since." But there were so few [shootings in Australia before 1996]. Whoopty do!

When Oliver relayed this statement to Van Cleave, he dismissed it as a "statistical anomaly". "Yeah, it was just that [Australia's] mass shootings disappeared," Oliver continued. "But there were so few [shootings in Australia before 1996]," Van Cleave responded. "Whoopty do!" Oliver then showed him footage of Howard explaining that in the 18 years before Port Arthur, Australia suffered 13 mass shootings. Since the gun reforms of 1996, there have been none. Homicides and suicides involving guns have also declined significantly. Van Cleave retorted that Australia "still has murders, rapes and robberies last I checked", to which Oliver said: "Unless you can get rid of 100 per cent of crime, it's not worth doing anything at all?"

At this point, Van Cleave began digging himself into a hole. "Well, put it this way," he said. "It's illegal to have crack cocaine anywhere in the United States. You think if somebody really wants it, they can get their hands on crack cocaine in America?" Oliver: "So unless we can completely get rid of drugs, there's no point in having drug laws at all?" Looking confused and embarrassed – and realising he was inadvertently advocating that illicit drugs be made legal – Van Cleave said: "Let me think about that for a minute. Um, well, effectively, it doesn't work." "You can't argue with Philip," Oliver told viewers. "Even his logic is bulletproof."

But Van Cleave persisted, trying to save himself with an analogy involving swimming pools. "There are more drownings in backyards where they have swimming pools," he said. "If they don't have a pool, there are no drownings in backyards, OK? So if the US has a very high number of guns, therefore, there's going to be more chances for somebody to be killed with a gun." Oliver: "Right. Van Cleave: "Right." Loading

Oliver: "Right. That's my point." The Daily Show airs 7pm weeknights on Foxtel's Comedy Channel.