A couple of points to make:
1. We don't have a Constitution to protect gunownership -- there is nothing to hold up as a legal yardstick -- hence, court battles are a waste of time and money.
2. In my State, there are approx 89 000 gunowners out of a population of approx 2.5 million -- and out of those 89 000 gunowners, only 4 400 belong to the Sporting Shooters Association. The point is, those of us who are vocal and continue to fight are spread m-i-g-h-t-y thin on the ground.
3. HankB
It didn't even take 50 years. When our Labor (left-wing) government came to power in the late 60s, it was after a conservative govt that had ruled since the end of WWII.
The floodgates were opened to every socialist program you can think of -- and then some. The country was, quite literally, turned on its ear in the space of a couple of years. Education was "liberalised", multiculturalism introduced, then equity and anti-sexism, anti-racism, open hatred of "white" Australia and a loathing of our "British" heritage, and the destruction of our military, including banning school cadets. The politicians strutted about calling each other "Comrade".
By the time they were thrown out of parliament in 1972 (literally, they were "sacked" by the Governor-General), the damage was done. The "new" Conservatives (the Liberal party) were far more left-wing than their predecessors, and the "gimme" minorities had tasted blood and wanted more.
The pace accelerated and the "average Aussie" -- the ones your Dad would have known -- were growing old and sadly outnumbered. The lawmakers coming through, the parliamentarians, journalists -- all of them were products of the "liberal" education system.
They'd grown up loathing our history and all we stood for. They were determined to make Australia part of Asia and sever any ties to Britain. Instead of being an ally, America was depicted as a warmongering capitalist society gone off the rails completely, and held up to public ridicule.
Now, the people who grew up with guns, who see them just as another tool to do a specific job, are mostly gone. Guns are equated with Columbine, with Port Arthur, and those who enjoy them portrayed as "potential mass murderers", "dinosaurs", "rednecks" or any other epithet.
So, Hank, yes -- you're right. A lot has been "bred" out of us -- deliberately and with a calculated awareness of what the result would be.
Those few of us left prepared to fight are pitifully small in number -- loud, but few. When we are gone, or silenced, I fear so too will gun ownership go the same way.
As to fighting, physically, to protect our gun "privileges" -- we're not talking about fighting a foreign army of oppression, we're talking insurrection against our own families and friends. There simply are not enough of us. It wouldn't even be a fight -- just picking us off one by one, with appropriate media exposure as "another group of gun fanatics". The media would have a field day -- even the fact I post to TFL is (right now) enough to see me labelled as a "gun nut" or "extremist" and pilloried in the press.
Just a few points in explanation.
B
Remember it aint family and friends its lawyers and politicians. To bad a few of those nazi parliament members coulnt get some "Dingo Justice", kinda messy but very Just for them.