I’ve tried to start this column a number of times but the truth is the level of stupidity and hypocrisy around this topic leaves me struggling to know where to start.

The Adler A110 lever action shotgun — not much in the shooting industry has caused publicity like this shotgun and the subsequent import ban of the seven shot version.

Anti-gun campaigners argue that allowing the ban on the seven shot Adler to lapse would “water down” gun laws, namely the National Firearms Agreement.

The gun lobby argues that the magazine capacity is a moot point and that there have been comparable weapons available legally in Australia for decades.

Politicians and commentators — left, right, and centre — have feigned surprise at the notion of the government “horsetrading” with Senator David Leyonhjelm on gun laws to get industrial relations reform through the Senate.

Spare us the moral grandstanding, it’s called getting things done.

When they’re not pretending that kind of thing doesn’t happen every damn day in Canberra, they’re misusing terminology and talking tough about guns in an effort to appear both informed and authoritative on the issue.

They achieve neither.

I’m a licensed shooter. I don’t own any guns, but in time I probably will.

I enjoy shooting and hunting. I enjoy getting into the bush and knowing that my pastime of shooting feral animals contributes to the conservation of native species and the wellbeing of the environment.

media_camera Senator David Leyonhjelm says he has been dudded by Ministers Dutton and Keenan over the importation of the Adler lever action shot gun. (Pic: News Corp Australia/Ray Strange)

But back to the Adler.

After a post-Lindt Siege review into the National Firearms Agreement, then prime minister Tony Abbott decided to ban the import of the seven shot variant, presumably because he needed to appear to be doing something.

The first problem is the lever action Adler A110 shot gun (in any variant) does not fall into a weapons category.

Technically, it’s a category A as it’s a single-barrelled shotgun. However, it’s not a break action (which are typically capable of one or two shots), nor is it a pump-action, which is classified C or D, meaning it can only be used by professional shooters or farmers.

For whatever reason, the National Firearms Agreement omitted lever action shotguns from its categorisation of weapons, despite their popularity for hunting.

It’s not a loophole, it’s an epic stuff up. Well done, government.

Lever action weapons are not a new technology. They’ve been around since the mid-1800s. There have been some refinements but the principle remains the same — you remove your finger from the trigger to operate the lever which cycles the action, simultaneously cocking the hammer, and loading a new cartridge. It’s not “rapid fire” or semiautomatic.

Which brings me to the second problem. There are far more effective lever action weapons with far greater magazine capacity readily available in category A or B.

After enduring months of paperwork, wait periods and hundreds of dollars in fees, I can buy a .22 lever action which has a magazine capacity of 12 rounds and that’s category A. Keep in mind that the second worst gun massacre in Australia’s history, after Port Arthur, was back in the 1970s and a bolt action .22 was used.

media_camera The Adler A110 shot gun. (Pic: Supplied)

In addition to banning the Adler A110 the government also quietly banned the import of the Rossi Circuit Judge, a great rifle that I’ve used.

The Rossi is a five shot revolver action which takes a smaller and less powerful shotgun cartridge than the Adler, but nobody kicked up much of a stink because it doesn’t sound as sexy or sensational.

This whole area of firearms legislation and classification is a joke.

Federal government, through its own failures when drawing up the National Firearms Agreement with the states, is now attempting to apply temporary fixes that punish licensed and law abiding shooters while doing nothing to actually address gun crime.

People like Roland Browne from Gun Control Australia claim that allowing importation of the Adler in any variant will put “dangerous guns on our streets”.

Here’s a newsflash, Roland: all guns are dangerous in the hands of idiots and criminals.

They won’t end up on the streets, they’ll end up in locked gun safes bolted to the frames of the houses of licensed gun owners as per the gun laws. And if they’re on the streets, it’s because of criminal activity which should be investigated and prosecuted by police.

Just because guns scare you doesn’t mean the rest of us should have to give them up.

The catalyst for the ban was the Lindt siege where the weapon used was a sawn off pump action shotgun — weapons that are adequately classified in existing legislation. The knee-jerk reaction to the Adler, as though it were some clandestine weapon previously unheard of and now being smuggled into the country, is both ridiculous and over the top.

In the meantime, black market handguns continue to be traded and used for gangland shootings in Australia and terrorist acts like the murder of Curtis Cheng.

The government has fallen victim to both its own stupidity and to sensationalism.

Call it the Four Corners Syndrome. A particular angle is pushed on a sensitive issue — live cattle processing, youth detention, guns — and the government overreacts far too quickly, instead of taking time to address the issue thoroughly with expert opinion.

The Howard government didn’t have the good sense to classify this type of gun and now the Abbott/Turnbull governments are being panicked into banning them, instead of taking the time to listen to all parties concerned and classify them appropriately.

Shooters are within their rights to feel aggrieved. The rights of licensed shooters have been hard won against constant opposition.

It’s time to stop treating them like the bad guys.