Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie described a disturbing video as free speech as she defended Australia’s gun culture on ABC’s Q&A on Monday night.

Ms McKenzie was advocating the responsible nature of Australia’s 800,000 gun owners when she was shown a shooting enthusiast video that depicts an effigy of Gun Control Australia’s Sam Lee being blasted with a shotgun.

“Well, I say it’s free speech,” Ms McKenzie said, before adding, “but I think Sam rightfully feels harassed by that, and I think it could be seen as threatening.”

The Victorian Senator admitted that the video, produced by the Shooting Stuff Australia group, gives law-abiding firearm owners a bad name.

“I would never argue against their right to say it or do it, but I think it is vile. And confronting,” Ms McKenzie said.

She said most firearm owners go about their business responsibly.

“We either participate in our sport with our friends and family,” she said.

“That actually doesn’t help the public conversation when we’re trying to separate the issues of terrorism, the issues of illicit firearms on our street and gun violence by gangs.”

The ABC reported on Monday that police have been asked to investigate the video, in which two gun enthusiasts demonstrating a controversial Adler lever action shotgun before the video then cuts to a blonde doll, dubbed “Sham Leigh from Fun Control Australia”.

The doll is shot multiple times until the head blows apart, which is then replayed in slow motion. The effigy is then set alight.

Watch the footage:

The man responsible for the video, identified as “Marty” from the Queensland-based group, has defended the video.

He told the ABC in an email: “All of our videos are light-hearted satire made for entertainment purposes.”

But Ms Lee said she believed the video was designed to threaten and silence gun control advocates.

“Marty needs to think about the broader conversation and public debate we’re having around firearms at the moment,” Ms McKenzie said on Q&A.

But she said she understood the frustration many shooters had with the work of Gun Control Australia.

“It can be frustrating when certain people in that debate don’t understand what you do. Don’t think you have a right to participate in a sport that we run at the Olympics, that the Australian Sports Commission think it’s fine for everybody to do,” Ms McKenzie said.

“That you’re not actually allowed to practice your workplace, for instance, if you’re a shooter for work,” she added.

“She [Sam Lee] can attack them for that. So there’s a lot of frustration out there for that and around the misinformation that occurs out in the public on this issue.

“But that’s quite confronting what they’ve chosen to do and how they’ve chosen to handle that situation.”

Watch some of the gun debate on Q&A below:

Both @rowandean & @larissawaters believe more guns will bring more violence & we should not go there #QandA https://t.co/utXAMyaQ0T — ABC Q&A (@QandA) September 12, 2016

We should not weaken our gun control, says @dai_le. Doug Cameron disagrees with these weapons available #QandA https://t.co/AfkzbR4iJK — ABC Q&A (@QandA) September 12, 2016

Ms Lee, a lawyer, told the ABC she reported the video to police in NSW and Queensland.

She said she asked the police to investigate whether the video constitutes the use of a carriage service to menace and harass.

Ms Lee and Gun Control Australia have campaigned hard for a permanent ban on the importation of the Adler lever action shotgun, which can fire eight shots in as many seconds.

Family friction

With the uncomfortable talk of gun control behind her, Ms McKenzie’s gay brother then publicly questioned what emotional toll a marriage plebiscite would have on same-sex attracted people.

Alastair McKenzie put the question to panellists via video.

“Given the majority of parliamentarians and Australians now support marriage equality, is a $160 million plebiscite necessary, and what impact do you think the debate will have on the emotional wellbeing of gay and lesbians like me?” Mr McKenzie asked.

Ms McKenzie said she thought the debate would only be damaging if people chose not to respect each other’s views.

“I have obviously a conscience view on this issue, I believe it is a conscience issue, and it is that the definition of marriage is between a man and a woman,” she said.

“What I think is that there is tension for some MPs, like myself, on both sides of the aisle between our desire to respect the sovereign will of the Australian people and our conscience in a representative democracy.”

Ms McKenzie said making the plebiscite binding would resolve this tension.

“What I think is a way forward on this issue for MPs and senators like myself who have this conflict and tension is that it is a binding plebiscite,” she said.

“That’s my personal view. I don’t know what cabinet is deciding but that’s a view I believe will resolve the tension.”

– With AAP