It was a brave, visionary move and Mr Howard enjoyed public support for the measure in the wake of the shocking Port Arthur massacre in 1996.

It was one of Mr Howard’s great legacies.

Sadly though, the number of guns in the community has steadily grown over the past decade or so undoing all the good work achieved by the Howard government.

This week it was revealed that police are discovering guns in cars on average every two days in Melbourne’s north-west, an area that has been branded the “red zone’’ by officers concerned about a growing gangster culture in the region.

This latest surge in gun ownership appears to be confined to an area plagued by disadvantage and unemployment, but if it is not checked it will get out of control.

Back in the ’90s people thought it was astonishing that Australians owned 600,000 semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.

Today, it is quite likely that there are more guns than ever in the community.

Young men in particular have an obsession with them, inspired by gun-play in Hollywood movies and the belief that it is cool to carry a weapon.

The illegal drug trade is a big driver of illegal gun culture as rival gangs tool up in order to protect the massive profits their evil business generates at the expense of the vulnerable.

Mercifully, regional Victoria does not suffer anything like this sort of problem with gun crime but we would be naive to think that shootings could never happen here.

The more guns that come into the community at large, the more likely is it that gun crime will increase.

It appears we have returned to the bad old days where way too many powerful weapons have found their way into the wrong hands.

The United States, with its relaxed out look to gun control, has just witnessed its latest mass shooting.

How long before it happens again in this country?