The thing people in US forget is that the Politicians here don't actually care what anyone thinks. Every single licenced gun owner in the country could join the SSAA and the politicians still wouldn't listen to them- there are maybe 1,000,000 licenced shooters in Australia out of a population of 21,000,000 or so, so there's no real reason for politicians to pay any particular attention to what gun owners want when there are 20,000,000 other people who either don't care or actively oppose what those 1,000,000 are up to.
Politicians are usually elected; a process which requires popular support/money. Politicians, IMHO, seldom care about principle; they care about personal power/prestige - a point you make. Actors and or pretendors on a stage of local/national/international proportions, they are people whose acting-out can be cut short by the success of opposition - the opposition's success being better funded and/or more popularly supported.
"...maybe 1 million licenced shooters out of a population of 21 million..."
Here in the U.S., the NRA has a membership of, maybe 2+ million among a population of 200+ million and most of the NRA membership is "annual" and at a rate of $35/year. 2 million x $35 = $70 million. A nice sum in itself.
Then, there are the Life members, the Benefactors, the Patrons and the Endowment members. And there are the contributions of people who buy from gun-related businesses which encourage "rounding up" their purchase amount by a few cents as a donation to the NRA.
Then too, their are the donations by firearms/ammunition sellers who see "the handwriting on the wall" and contribute funds as a means of insuring their own existence. It all adds up and it adds up quickly.
1/21 vs 1/200 indeed.
Granted, we here in the U.S. have the benefit of our Second Amendment (Bill of Rights) to our Constitution which states "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." (Militia = citizens, as established by multiple legal challenges to the Second Amendment intent over the past many years by anti-gun ownership entities.)
Our forebears, having had the experience of governance by a "despot" distrusted absolute power by the "crown" or any other tyranny and reserved the right of U.S. citizens to be armed in order to oppose tyranny. "From my cold, dead hands...."
The fact remains that our NRA has, by dint of membership fees and contributions to its ILA (Institute for Legislative Action) been able to lobby our national leadership in such a manner as to keep our "gun rights" at least tenuously secure.
Money. Money buys power. Lots of money buys lots more power. More proponents of gun-ownership contributing money = more lobbying power.
Sad it is that money supplants moral character and ethical behaviour among politicians but it does so on both sides of any sociopolitical issue.
Australians have been in the forefront for so long in so many conflicts that most of us look to them to stand up and take full on any attempt to suppress them.
Sometimes the opposition seems overwhelming. Sometimes it only appears to be so.
