I think part of the reason semi-auto assault rifles were outlawed here is because you can't really make much of a case for owning one. Even our gun lobby strongly supports that part of the legislation and we're the home of FN Herstal. Most of our most famous firearms are ironically illegal to own in this country such as the P90 and various FN rifles. If you really want to use an assault rifle you can fire them as much as you want at a shooting range. You can legally have one if you qualify for a special permit on top of a standard permit as a special forces unit in law enforcement or are enlisted in the military with infantry combat training. While self-defense is one of the legal reasons you can submit for getting a firearm permit, in your hearing before the provincial firearms council for your permit it can't be the sole reason you submit for ownership. It must be accompanied by an additional reason such as hunting or sports shooting. The law states that the kind of firearms available under standard permits are plenty sufficient for self-defense if necessary. That generally means break-action shotguns and rifles with a very limited ammo capacity. Generally a capacity of 1 to 2 bullets. If you want a handgun you can only get one through a sports shooting license and it can only carry a maximum of 5 bullets.
Even if those kind of semi-auto assault rifles were legal no self-respecting hunter I've ever met would use them nowadays. It would practically be cheating at hunting given that we only shoot with break-action firearms that can only fire once or twice before having to load new bullets in the chamber. Throughout the years you occasionally hear some stories about hunting with more advanced weaponry in other countries. Disgraceful to the art of hunting imo.
Different culture of course but I don't see any reason besides "because I want to and because I can" to own a semi-auto assault rifle. You're not gonna walk around with an AR in town to defend yourself when you can tuck a handgun into a concealed holster. And on your own private property a shotgun or a handgun would surely be sufficient for self-defense.
I'm not necessarily opposed to firearms in general, I owned 6 of them myself for a while, but I really don't think semi-auto assault weapons serve any reasonable purpose. I firmly support our laws requiring special permits on top of a standard firearm permit to own those kind of guns and the requirement of having some high ranking combat position in law enforcement or the military to get such a permit.
For the 99% who will never be able to even qualify for that kind of permit, everyone is welcome to give them a go at a shooting range. Even automatic weapons.
If there is sensible legislation and a healthy gun culture I don't have that much of a problem with guns. Personally I don't believe the US has either and most certainly not the latter. Switzerland is the most firmly pro-gun country in this part of the European continent and you never hear about mass shooting incidents there.
Since our 2006 gun law overhaul after a mass shooting incident we also started registering every subsequent firearm sale and gun ownership in a massive electronic database. As I found out for myself there's lots of information in there. My full name, address, phone number, complete information about every gun I've had including model, caliber and serial number, the dates when they were acquired, the location, previous owner and permit information. Frankly I'm not sure how they even got some of that information as one of the guns I found at my dad's home (a shotgun that can fold completely in half) was one I had never seen before and it turned out to have been outlawed since 2006. I was planning to turn it in anyway but the cops sent me a letter ordering to do so and listed the serial number on the gun.
Maybe a bit excessive but hey it certainly keeps track of firearms. There's loads of unregistered guns out there from pre-2006 but at least 200k of them were retroactively registered in 2006 if I recall correctly.
Overall I think the 2006 law certainly changed a lot. Prior to that you could buy practically any gun with very little restrictions. There was some opposition from the gun lobby at first but they're firm supporters of most of the legislation now including the database, restrictions to assault rifles of any kind and making the permit process much more strict. I'd say our gun lobby is pretty great really, especially nowadays. They mostly stick to updating citizens on any changes or potential changes to the legislation and how it affects gun owners. They don't appear to do much actual lobbying against specific policies, at least not publicly. Overall a well respected organization.
Edit: One of the other key policies that was added is that anyone over the age of 18 living in the same residence as the individual applying for a firearm permit has the right to block firearm applications. Not retroactively but they can block the renewal of an existing permit aside from blocking a brand new one. In every permit application, the default position of all co-inhabitants is listed as supportive of the permit application. Thus if there is no objection the process will continue as normally. However if any of the co-inhabitants submit any objection the process is shut down immediately until they no longer object or if they no longer reside in the same home. It's not necessarily just between family members, it applies to roommates as well. No reason behind the objection is required, a simple "I object" would suffice.