I'll answer your questions in reverse order.
I don't actually agree with Australia's 1996 gun law reforms. I think they were ridiculous and were mostly unjustified - there were a couple of minor points that I think were reasonable, but overall they were something I opposed, and they are something I don't like.
I made that clear back in #37 - that I don't like the laws.
What's my interest in the board? I'm a conservative and I have been since I was 10 years old (and that's going back about 38 years now). Most of my adult life was spent in the RAN, and I stayed out of active politics while I was in the military. Since leaving the Defence Force, I've become a teacher, and also a University lecturer - both environments that expose you to lot of liberals, and a lot of socialists. I'm frankly starting to get seriously worried about where these people want to take us.
I support the rights of gun owners - I'm an Australian living in Australia, so the US Second Amendment isn't incredibly relevant to me personally, but the basic principle that citizens should be allowed to possess weapons is important to me.
But as an Australian, so is people telling the truth about my country. That's important too. I suspect you don't like it when foreigners lie about America, in the same way I don't like it when people spread incorrect information about my country.
Unfortunately, reading Free Republic over the years, I've noticed that there's a lot of Americans who really believe Australia's gun laws are far worse than they are. There seem to be a lot of Americans who believe Australians have been disarmed - and that simply isn't so. I don't like the laws. I think they go too far. But by no stretch of the imagination, have Australians been disarmed.
Any Australian citizen over the age of 18, who doesn't have an active criminal record, is very unlikely to have a hard time getting a gun licence and getting a gun.
Australian citizens who want to own firearms, own firearms.
We're not disarmed, we're not defenceless.
My interest in this board is to discuss conservatism and conservative issues with other right-minded people. But that, to me, means, telling the truth - and correcting misinformation about my country when it occurs for whatever reason - I'm not claiming, by the way, that's anyone is lying - it's easy enough to be mistaken and misinformed about what is happening on the other side of the world. But if nobody ever speaks up to correct the misperceptions, it keeps happening.
As to specific licencing.
Firearms are divided into categories - category A to category E.
A basic licence - very easy to get unless you're carrying convictions - allows a person to own and use Category A and B longarms. Basically that's most single action rifles.
Category C and D are semi-automatic longarms, shotguns, and pump action shot-guns (I am simplifying of course). Getting a licence for C and D is slightly more complicated - basically you have to give a reason for owning the weapon - hunting is the most common reason - but it's still not hard to get a C and D licence.
Category E are machine guns, weapons that fire tear gas, and short barrelled rifles and shot guns (under 30 inches total length, I think). Getting an E licence is fairly hard - but there are ways and means of doing it.
Handguns are handled seperately - basically you need a specific handgun licence - and again, it takes a bit of work to get that, but most people could do it if they chose to.
Now, as I've said, I don't think the laws are good ones - but they haven't disarmed us. They've just added some more bureaucracy.