The province has previously estimated that Quebecers own 1.6 million long guns, mostly shotguns and rifles.

A former RCMP officer says small-town policing can leave cops facing difficult situations on their own, and help is often "far, far away."

The bill will address concerns raised by the information commissioner over the RCMP allegedly destroying gun registry data in violation of Access to Information laws, Ralph Goodale said.

Conservative leadership candidates are debating whether to make guns like the AR-15 more accessible to Canadians.

The province tabled a bill last December aimed at setting up its own log three years after the Conservatives abolished the federal database for non-restricted guns, known as the long-gun registry. But after unanimity among Quebec lawmakers on the proposal, some politicians are starting to have cold feet.

The constitutional challenge of a Conservative law that retroactively cleared the RCMP for destroying gun registry data has been put on hold.

A Federal Court filing alleges the Conservative government was pushing for the speedy destruction of long-gun registry records even as it was promising the information commissioner that it would preserve the data.

Families of victims and witnesses to the 1989 Montreal massacre said Canada's hard-won gun control laws are being whittled away -- and no one seems ready, or even allowed, to talk about it.

Mayor Don Iveson addressed police deaths involving guns Wednesday, while Canada's justice minister stood firm on the decision to dissolve the federal gun registry.

By a 5-4 margin, the Supreme Court upheld an earlier Quebec Court of Appeal ruling that sided with the government on its controversial decision to abolish the federal registry for long guns in 2011.