Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner’s private bill to abolish the long-gun registry was defeated in a vote of 153 to 151at the House of Commons last week. The controversial registry, which costs between $2 million and $4 million of taxpayers’ money to maintain annually, has long divided rural and urban Canadians. The RCMP claims to be increasingly using the registry now even though its effectiveness is still highly debated. Advocates for gun control see the registry as a necessary safety measure while rural Canadians, whose livelihoods depend on such firearms, want to do away with the hassle of registration – a process that involves fees, countless paperwork, character references from neighbours and friends as well as interviews with the gun owners and their families. Not one to concede the fight, Prime Minister Harper has promised to carry on the battle and see the long-gun registry to its grave.