CTV News Montreal

Updated: Wed Nov. 04 2009 9:12:11 PM

CTV.ca News Staff

Conservative MPs, with the support of a few Liberals and New Democrats, have voted in principle to kill the contentious federal long gun registry.

The House erupted in cheers from the Tories as the private member's bill passed by a vote of 164 to 137. The Tories got help from 12 NDP MPs, eight Liberals and one Independent.

Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner's bill will now go to a Commons committee for further study and a possible amendment.

Conservatives have long argued that the decade-old registry for most shotguns and rifles is a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars, which targets honest gun owners while doing nothing to curb gun crime.

However, proponents such as police chiefs, notably from big cities like Montreal and Toronto, have said the registry is useful tool and has lead to more responsible gun ownership and has reduced suicides and crimes of passion using guns.

The Harper government has long opposed the gun registry, brought in by the former Liberal government in response to the killing of 14 women at a Montreal college in 1989. They've long argued that it unfairly hassles honest hunters and owners of long guns, while doing nothing to stop criminals.

Conservatives argue the registry has been "$1-billion boondoggle," although a 2006 study by the auditor general found eliminating the long-gun portion of the registry would only save taxpayers about $3 million a year going forward.

The RCMP has strongly supported keeping the registry alive, and is working on improving problems with the database. There was a 2008 report on the success of the overhaul but Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan won't release it.

"Canadians don't need another report to know that the long gun registry is very efficient at harassing law-abiding farmers and outdoors enthusiasts, while wasting billions of taxpayer dollars," Van Loan's office said in a release Wednesday.

"They don't need another report to know that the registry does nothing to prevent crime."

The vote comes as the 20th anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre approaches. The mother of one of those slain Montreal students, who was one of those who campaigned for the creation of the registry, put out a public appeal this week imploring MPs to keep the registry going.

"Shoulder firearms kill just like handguns," Suzanne Laplante-Edward wrote in a published letter.

Montreal's police chief, Yvan Delorme, also pleaded with politicians to keep the registry alive, noting that all the money spent to create it will be wasted if it's eliminated.

"Its existence is essential, primarily for security reasons, but also because the investments already made would be entirely wasted," Delorme said in a rare political statement issued from his office.

"Yes, the registry could be improved, but we consider it an important tool to minimize the risks associated with guns."

Delorme described how, shortly after the 2007 Dawson College shooting, police received a report that another individual had been making similar threats. The registry alerted officers that this person owned several guns -- which officers seized, Delorme said.

Last week, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair also used the seizure of a huge haul of restricted weapons to defend the beleaguered registry.

"We believe that the gun registry provides police services across this country with the information they need, first of all to help us keep communities safe, and also to keep police officers safe," he told a news conference last Wednesday.

The chief noted that Bill C-391 is "intended to gut the gun registry, and to make it impossible for law enforcement officials to have access to the information, the same type of information, that enabled us to seize these weapons -- and frankly, make our cities safer."

The Conservatives meanwhile launched a publicity blitz in recent weeks to draw support for killing the registry.

They bought radio ads in largely rural areas, stressing the importance of protecting the rural way of life, and urging listeners to flood their MPs with calls and emails to vote for the bill.

With reports from The Canadian Press

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