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Dutil noted that 2,561 weapons were ordered seized across the province during the past year out of concerns for the safety of the owner or another person.

Bill C-19 proposes that the arms registry be not only abolished but that all the records will be destroyed.

Dutil made his case for preserving the registry at House of Commons hearings on Bill C-19 in Ottawa, but his federal counterpart, Vic Toews, has said plans to destroy the registry would go ahead.

The long-gun registry has long been a political hot button — wildly unpopular in much of the West and in rural Canada but enjoying broad support in Quebec. Advocates have argued it’s a much-needed tool for police to keep Canadian communities safe while critics call it a costly intrusion into the lives of law-abiding gun-owners.

The Conservatives introduced Bill C-19 in October.

With their majority in both the Commons and the Senate, the Tories now have the power to ensure the bill will be passed and that the long-gun registry will be abolished.

A year ago, the minority Conservative government attempted to repeal the long-gun registry through a private member’s bill introduced by Tory MP Candice Hoeppner.

That bill was narrowly defeated once the Liberals whipped all their MPs to vote as a block against it, and when some NDP MPs who had opposed the registry previously changed their votes to help keep it alive.

During the spring election campaign, Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed to introduce legislation if re-elected to kill the registry.

“We must stop targeting law-abiding gun owners, and instead focus our resources on real criminals,” he said in a statement while campaigning in April.

The RCMP has argued it’s an important tool used by police to keep track of firearms.

The RCMP says the registry costs about $4-million to run but it was plagued by cost overruns when it was being launched in 2002. Then-auditor general Sheila Fraser pegged the costs at $1-billion.