Ms Meadows is a gun rights hardliner who recently said in an interview with the Marietta Daily Journal that some of her views were even tougher than the NRA’s official positions. Loading "I believe in arming teachers. Absolutely. In my church, I’m armed. My pastor is a shooter, a hunter, he knows I am, people in the congregation do," she said, adding: "this is not [an] NRA position. But as far as I’m concerned, I’d love to have a sign out front: 'We have gun-toting teachers and security'." Ms Meadows said that she travelled across Australia and visited small towns and cities as well as Sydney, Port Arthur and Canberra where she says she met with MPs whose pro-regulation views were at odds with people who lived outside cities, who she said were "very pro-gun". Former prime minister Mr Howard dismissed Ms Meadows' claims.

"There is no denying that there has been a reduction in firearm deaths and mass shootings since the National Firearm Agreement," he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. "A 2011 study found that the average firearm homicide rate went down by 42 per cent in Australia in the seven years after the agreement compared with the seven prior. "Following the agreement and until 2018, Australia had experienced no mass shootings, while in the 18 years prior it had experienced 13. Former PM John Howard, wearing a bullet-proof vest, addresses gun owners in Sale following the Port Arthur massacre. Credit:Colin Murty "It is ludicrous to suggest that the gun control measures we introduced do not enjoy widespread support."

Associate professor Philip Alpers, director of GunPolicy.org at the University of Sydney’s school of public health, which tracks and compares gun laws around the world, says Ms Meadow’s characterisation of the effect of the laws in Australia misses the point. "No study shows that the 1996 gun laws reduced 'the crime rate' — burglary, arson, rape, assault and every other crime — but nobody claimed it would," he explains. Loading "The laws targeted mass shootings, and we went from 14 of those in a decade to none in the next two decades. The risk of an Australian dying by gunshot dropped by more than half and hasn’t risen since, but the NRA doesn’t want Americans to know that." A poll by Essential last year found overwhelming support for Australia’s gun laws, with a significant portion of people wanting to see them made even tougher.

In total 62 per cent of respondents believed they were "about right" and 25 per cent thought they were too weak. Only seven per cent thought they are too strict. Ms Meadows wrote that Australia's gun law reforms were a "lesson" for America. "What happened in Australia, confiscating guns from law-abiding citizens, made no difference to their crime rate," she wrote. "If someone is bent on violent crime, only direct intervention will stop them. Bad guys in Australia still use guns and knives. "Banning, confiscating and restricting the rights of law-abiding people never works. It has been demonstrated throughout history that when you disarm people the result is a country of subjects, not citizens."

Carolyn Meadows, president of the National Rifle Association in the US. Credit:Ashley Gilbertso She said that in the wake of the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, a "predictable media frenzy has led to the "the same troubling aftermath that I witnessed in its neighbour many years ago," a reference to the country's new gun control laws. The NRA has long used Australia’s gun laws as an example to its members of what might happen in America if they did not maintain their support and donations for the lobbyist. In a 2015 article in America’s 1st Freedom entitled "Australia: There Will be Blood", it was claimed there was a growing consensus in Australia that the Port Arthur reforms had failed. "The Australian people paid a massive price in liberty. Their reward? At best, an unexamined resolution that things were somehow better now," it said.

"[The law reforms] robbed Australians of their right to self-defence and empowered criminals, all without delivering the promised reduction in violent crime. "Australia's gun confiscation is indeed a lesson to America: It is a sign of what is to come if we hold our rights lightly." Ms Meadows took over as the NRA’s president earlier this year after a bitter power struggle between the former president, Oliver North, and the chief executive, Wayne LaPierre. The NRA has been contacted for comment.