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Australians have a common law right to self defence. That law does not specifically specify what weapons can or cannot be used in self defence.

What it says is that self defence must be proportionate to the threat faced. To use deadly force, a person must genuinely believe their life (or the life or another) is in danger, or that there is a risk of significant serious injury.

If those conditions are met, you can use a gun in self defence.

Now, where this gets confusing is that in certain cases, people need to demonstrate a particular reason why they need to own a particular type of firearm - if you say ‘self defence’ in that situation, your claim will almost certainly be denied (there are actually a few exceptions to this but that’s generally true).

So, yes, that can be interpreted in the way you describe.

But only an idiot would write such a reason down on the form.

I am licenced to own both handguns and semi-automatic weapons. Would I be able to use those in self defence if I had to - if I genuinely believed my life was in danger. Yes, I would be.

But that isn’t the stated reason I own them. And it really isn’t the reason I own them, to be very clear. I’m a member of pistol club, and I hunt.

People learn how to navigate the laws, so they can own firearms legally.

Does it take a bit of effort? Yes, it does. But frankly, I think that makes people take the laws more seriously.

There are some genuinely difficult to get around regulations and laws concerning very powerful firearms. Some of those come close to being actual bans in practice.

But there’s a lot less of that than people seem to think.