Owner of Bullets & Bits, a family-run firearms business in Orange, Ray Hawkins says while he isn't overly in-tune with gun laws in the United States, comparatively, the ones in Australia seem to function a lot better.

"I guess ours are just more effective, because they're sensible," Mr Hawkins said.

"It's always thrown about that you pick [a gun] up at the store [in America] and then it's done - I'm not 100 per cent sure what their gun laws are like - but I wouldn't wouldn't say that our laws here make guns harder to get, provided you tick the right boxes.

"Once you do that, then you can put in a Permit to Acquire [PTA] and go and purchase a firearm, so it's not hard - it's just a matter of doing the right thing."

The last-known data from 2019 on The Greens' 'Too Many Guns' website, shows hundreds of guns owned by individuals across the Central West.

Of the 'Top 100 Private Arsenals' list for NSW - which excludes licensed suppliers and arms collectors - the Cabonne Shire ranked ninth with 199 guns owned by a single person, while Orange came in at spot 29.

The statistics show Dubbo in at eighth position, with one person owning 200 firearms, and again in Dubbo placed at 16 and 24. The publicly-accessible list also reveals Bathurst in at spot 38, while Parkes comes in at 39 and Blayney at 50.

Though, Mr Hawkins believes "pinpointed areas" where registered firearms are located, as such, is something he feels could do with some revision.

"It just gives criminals more pinpointed areas of where they should be targeting and breaking into homes trying to find firearms to steal, and it's 100 per cent a common issue," he said.

"I believe by [the site] basically advertising in different suburban areas where people are storing firearms, it's not helpful - it just makes [those gun owners] an easier target."

Another loophole or issue, Mr Hawkins says, is that many of these firearms are simply owned by collectors.

"A lot of them are guns that aren't worth anything to anyone else, but they're old-style firearms and the problem there is - which probably needs to be looked at by registry as well - is as a collector, you can't use your firearms, at all," he said.

"You can't go out and shoot them, so for someone who is genuinely a collector, but still wants to be able to shoot, they don't put them under 'collectors', they just put them under a normal licence."

While its true that the list of "genuine reasons" - such as recreational hunting, certain rural occupations and animal welfare purposes - for requiring a firearm is pretty broad in retrospect, the legal road to get a gun licence from the outset, however, takes some time and effort to travel down.

Aside from being 18 years old or more, you'll need to provide detailed evidence for the purpose of your intended gun-use, with the addition of completing firearms safety and training courses, annually.

You'll also be screened against an exhaustive list of permit refusals, whether that's an Apprehended Violence Order - which extends over a 10-year period - or having been convicted of charges of a violent, fraudulent or sexual nature, to name only some.

It'll also include passing 'fit and proper person' testing, which is defined under Sections 11, 12 and 29 of the NSW Firearms Act as "someone that can be trusted to have a firearms without danger to public safety or to the peace."

Determining factors to satisfy the registry, are measured against the gun applier's way of living, their domestic circumstances, any prior suicide attempts or self-harm, and/or "intemperate habits or being of unsound mind."

"So basically, say I went and put in for a firearms licence today and then sent it off to Firearms Registry - there's a 28-day cooling off stage before they'll even process [a gun]," Mr Hawkins said.

"[The Firearms Registry] also do checks in that time before it does any [form of] licencing and I guess it's to stop somebody from doing something [irrational], like if someone held a grudge against someone ,

"So, you don't just go out and get a licence and then get a firearm issued the same day - it gives it that time in between."

On top of this, there's another 28-day cooling-off condition on a person's first firearm application, as well.

"So, in theory, before you get your licence - before you've even started the process, to passing registry requirements, to the time you can actually own a firearm - it's probably more like three or four months."

While similar background, age and personality checks are also relevant in the United States, under federal law - there's no time period from gun purchase, to immediate use.

This 'application pending' stage is also joined by private gun sellers that run rife in the underground firearms market, along with a notoriously flawed monitoring system - one that is ill-staffed, underfunded and lacking in resources, often missing the mark in an endless sea of red flags.

With the US President, Joe Biden, only just signing the bill for tougher gun laws on Sunday, there's still some huge obstacles surrounding the control of America's firearms.

According to Charles Sturt's senior lecturer in Law and Law Discipline, Dr Bede Harris says the rewording or removal of the Second Amendment - which protects the right of American citizens to keep and bear arms - is "virtually impossible".

With high-level support for gun ownership amidst the country's legislators, changes would require votes from well over half of the politicians - from both the houses of Congress and state officials.

"Even overcoming the first hurdle - securing support for such a measure by a two-thirds majority in each of the houses of Congress - would be a monumental task," Dr Harris said.

"Given that Democrats - who broadly favour gun control, although not necessarily repeal of the Second Amendment - hold only 220 of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 48 of the 100 seats in the Senate."

To see reduced gun violence in the US, the Bullets & Bits owner says, would be to adopt similar gun laws in Australia - particularly when it comes to the concealing and restriction of access to weaponry, in his opinion.

"I just find it's too easy over there to get firearms and especially for kids - you hear about kids constantly getting a hold of guns - and I guess that comes back to safe storage and not having them locked up," Mr Hawkins said.

"[In Australia], every firearm needs to be in an approved safe and it needs to be bolted down - unless it's over 150 kilograms, which is for Category A and B firearms - but if it's any bigger than that, then [the safe itself] needs to be bolted down, no matter what.

"So, I believe we do [have good laws around safe gun storage] and I think we've got it at a pretty good ratio - I think what we have to do, ticks the boxes."

With the bulk of his clientele consisting of recreational hunters, vermin controllers, primary production workers and target shooters, Mr Hawkins says the family-owned business is well-versed in promoting gun security.

"We do the safety course where you come down and we watch a DVD, go through some questions and run through peoples' basic knowledge of handling firearms," he said.

"What to do with guns, what not to do them - and that also goes into [secure] transportation and the safe storage of firearms, at all times."

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