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The Liberal gun reform legislation currently before the House of Commons does a lot of different things.

It allows for expanded background checks on people applying for a gun licence, it re-allocates to the RCMP the power to classify firearms, it allows the province of Quebec to request and receive the data held by the federal government from when the old long run registry was dismantled.

READ MORE: What do the changes to Canadian gun laws mean for you?

Among its provisions is also a requirement for businesses to keep records of gun sales and makes it mandatory for vendors to verify the person they are selling to holds a valid firearms permit.

Those last two aspects of it were the major point of discussion among members when Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale appeared before the House of Commons public safety committee on Tuesday.

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Again and again, Conservative MPs tried to establish that the bill has the effect of creating a gun registry.

And again and again, Liberal MPs asked Goodale to explain why the bill does not create a gun registry.

So which is it? Why does it matter?

Let’s break down the facts.

What does the bill actually say?

The wording of C-71, An Act to Amend Certain Acts and Regulations in Relation to Firearms, makes two key changes to the responsibilities placed on gun vendors in Canada.

Under the new rules, businesses — but not private sellers — will have to keep records of all firearms sales for at least 20 years, including the firearms licence number of the person who obtained the gun from them.

WATCH BELOW: Goodale outlines four key problems NOT addressed by Bill C-71

1:51 Goodale outlines four key problems NOT addressed by Bill C-71 Goodale outlines four key problems NOT addressed by Bill C-71

It’s up to the business owners how they want to keep those records and they do not need to be kept in ledger form.

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The records also remain the legal property of the business.

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Police would need to have a warrant to obtain a specific piece of information held by the business and none of the information could be requested or accessed even by the chief firearms officer without judicial authorization.

As well, anyone — both businesses and private sellers — will have to verify the licence of the person they are providing a gun to through the Canada Firearms Program.

Right now, licence checks are commonplace but legally voluntary.

The arguments raised by Conservative members of the committee were that requiring the private keeping of records is effectively the same thing as maintaining a registry of gun sales.

How is this different from the long gun registry?

The former long gun registry was abolished by the federal Conservatives in February 2012 after a failed attempt to do so in 2006.

The long gun registry itself was a database overseen by the RCMP that contained information of which registered gun owner owned which registered firearm from all three classes: non-restricted, restricted and prohibited.

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2:43 Victims of gun violence call on feds to improve gun control in Canada Victims of gun violence call on feds to improve gun control in Canada

All guns were required to be registered and police did not need a warrant to check the system.

In 2011, RCMP said police accessed the database more than 17,000 times a day in activities like evaluating whether someone they pulled over at a traffic stop might pose an additional threat to consider.

READ MORE: What data is in the gun registry?

Abolishing the long gun registry did not change the licensing requirements that stated Canadians looking to obtain a gun had to possess a valid firearms permit.

However, it did abolish the requirement for businesses to keep records of their gun sales — although, as the government has noted since introducing the bill, many still do.

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The former long gun registry contained the names and addresses of registered gun owners as well as the make, model, manufacturer, type, action, class, calibre, shots and barrel of the firearm being registered, along with the registration date.

In comparison, C-71 requires businesses to keep a record of the make, model, type and serial number of the firearm being sold as well as the reference number, the date the reference number was issued, and the licence number of the person buying the gun.

WATCH BELOW: Goodale says gun control controversy in the U.S. shouldn’t affect Canada

1:35 Goodale says gun control controversy in the US shouldn’t effect Canada Goodale says gun control controversy in the US shouldn’t effect Canada