MONTREAL - If federal politicians want to kill the gun registry, the may have to stare down the families of Polytechnique massacre victims and a high-profile delegation from Quebec.

The province's public safety minister reacted furiously to a move to scrap the long-gun registry, which was inspired by the murder of 14 Montreal university students almost 20 years ago.

His comments Thursday underscored the emotional reaction to gun control in Quebec and the potential that the current debate could hold volatile political consequences.

Public Safety Minister Jacques Dupuis said he wants to testify at the parliamentary committee in Ottawa studying the bill before the final vote that would see the registry eliminated for good.

He said he wants to bring along members of a group that includes relatives of the 14 women killed on Dec. 6, 1989, in what's become known as the Montreal Massacre.

"We will continue to fight," Dupuis said.

He said he would also bring along opposition MPs in a gesture aimed at showing how overwhelmingly opposed the province is to any measure that would erode gun control.

So far, at the federal level, the party gearing up to reap the benefits of any gun-control backlash is the Bloc Quebecois.

The Bloc Quebecois was the only party to vote unanimously in favour of keeping the registry - and it's already working to draw political benefit from the emotional issue.

Quick on the draw, the Bloc had already begun running shock ads in one Montreal riding where a by-election is set to unfold next week.

Blood-oozing, bullet-riddled posters suggest other pan-Canadian parties - these posters took specific aim at the NDP and Tories - are one and the same when it comes to gun control.

The backlash comes after the entire Conservative caucus, 12 New Democrats, and eight Liberals voted to scrap the registry.

The Bloc is bluntly stating its plan to make gun control an election issue.

"We can't lose this advantage that we have," said the Bloc's public safety critic, Serge Menard, in an interview.

"It seems obvious that the political party that, as a whole, is clearly in favour of the firearms registry is the Bloc Quebecois."

McGill University political scientist Antonia Maioni says this is just the sort of emotional wedge issue the Bloc was looking to seize on, to boost its support.

"It's sort of one of those issues where there's a cultural specificity to the way that it's perceived in Quebec," she said.

"Those are the very kinds of issues that I think the Bloc wants to use and probably will . . . when we get to another general election."

The provincial opposition is now calling for Quebec to take over control of its portion of the gun registry. Menard also made the request to Ottawa during Thursday's Question Period, but was essentially ignored.

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said while the Quebec legislature might favour the registry, a letter from the province's 125,000-member hunters and fishers federation suggests many Quebecers are happy to see it go.

"It's clear that the firearms registry is a giant waste of money and is totally useless in preventing crime," he said.

"I implore the leader of the Bloc Quebecois to do the same thing that fellow party leaders have done and make it a free vote. We'll see that there will be more support to abolish the firearms registry."

Leger Marketing pollster Christian Bourque doesn't buy it.

While there have been no recent polls gauging public opinion on gun control, he suspects it hasn't changed since Quebecers almost unanimously supported a gun registry - even in rural settings - a decade ago.

If anything, the September 2006 rampage at Dawson College that left one person dead and 19 injured strengthened Quebec's views on gun control, he said.

"There's nothing in the last 10 years to suggest opinions about the gun registry have changed," said Bourque, noting that support for the registry was strongest in Quebec.

"The horrible events at Dawson College probably just reinforced public opinion."