A gun-toting Nationals senator has warned state premiers against reclassifying a controversial version of the Adler shotgun, accusing them of scoring cheap political points to curry favour with urban voters.
Only a few shooters - such as feral pest controllers - will be able to access the seven-shot gun if the nation's leaders approve a proposal on Friday.
NSW is expected to drop its opposition to reclassifying the lever-action gun to category D at the Council of Australian Governments meeting, paving the way for limited importation.
But Victorian senator Bridget McKenzie insists there's no evidence to warrant tightening access rules and with little public consultation to boot.
"If the evidence exists, go for it, but it doesn't," she told AAP on Monday.
Senator McKenzie said a reclassification would play into a "culture of mistrust" and sentiment that governments and the major political parties did not understand or refused to listen to law-abiding gun owners.
"That just shows that politicians of Liberal and Labor parties are using gun owners to score cheap political points in inner urban seats rather than dealing with facts at hand."
The Nationals senator controversially crossed the floor to vote in favour of a bid to overturn an import ban on the gun in November.
"This was an overreaction from the start, putting on the import ban and choosing to target-law abiding firearm owners to look tough on crime," she said.
Nationals MP Mark Coulton, who represents the rural NSW electorate of Parkes, said a potential reclassification was concerning to many people.
"(They're) thinking that this could be the thin-end of the wedge," he told ABC radio.
"If the Adler gets reclassified some of the other firearms that they are using on a fairly regular basis might come under the same scrutiny."
Treasurer Scott Morrison said any decision was up to the states and territories, not the federal government.
"We have said quite plainly without any resolution to this issue our ban is in place and there's no change to that," he told Ray Hadley on 2GB radio.
