In what amounts to a procedural vote on whether or not to pursue legislation to dismantle the long gun registry in Canada outside of committee, Parliament narrowly voted to save the registry.

Debate has been hot on either side of this issue for some time now, although for the Tories, they might have liked to keep the issue alive a fair bit longer to extend their surging fund raising around this issue.  However, today private members bill C-391 was finally put to rest with a vote of 153 for and 151 against.  That being said, I'm sure several MP's will be on the defencive during the next election no matter how they voted.

The vote itself was relatively lively, with members looking around wondering who would vote yea or nay and both sides applauding various MP's when they voted.  The Prime Minister tried to dampen the blow to his agenda by saying that opposition to the gun registry is at an all time high.  But the fact that it was introduced as a private members bill and not a government bill, shows that the Prime Minister's office didn't have high hopes for the bill's prospects from the beginning.

In any event, watch the vote below: