Bloc MP Claude Guimond rises to vote on a Conservative private member's bill designed to kill the decade-old long gun registry bill in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Wednesday Nov.4, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

QUEBEC - If Canada won't get serious about gun control, Quebec should.

The opposition Parti Quebecois wants the province to take over responsibility for its portion of the federal long gun registry. Ottawa voted in favour of scrapping the controversial billion-dollar registry Wednesday. Pequiste Alexandre Cloutier says Quebecers are tired of debating the merits of gun control.

He says the debate can end once and for all if the province took over the registry with the help of federal funds.

While Premier Jean Charest has adopted three motions favouring gun control, the PQ says that's not enough.

"Instead of sending letters or adopting motions, it's high time this government makes it clear to the federal government: It's enough. Gun control in Quebec, we'll take care of it," said the party's public security critic Bertrand St-Arnaud.

"If we want to resolve the question once and for all, Quebec needs to take over the management of the gun registry and the money for it should be transferred to the Quebec government," Cloutier added.

Quebec has been among the most vocal supporters of the long gun registry which has been mired in controversy over its effect on curbing violent crime and its hefty price tag.

Quebecers are so passionate about it, one Bloc Quebecois MP suffering from swine flu showed up with a face mask just to vote against the bill scrapping the registry.

With the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre at Ecole Polytechnique just a month away, gun control is likely to remain a hot topic in the province.

Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe will undoubtedly use the failure of the gun registry to bolster support.

He's been arguing for a year that federalist parties are one and the same and that the only way to protect Quebec values is by voting for the Bloc.

Duceppe wasted little time splashing the news on the Internet, posting word of the vote on his Twitter page.

Thanks to the "lack of courage" of the Liberals, New Democrats, and Tories from Quebec, he said, "the gun registry is threatened with dismantlement."

Duceppe slammed the Conservative MPs who voted down the registry saying they were ignoring the will of the people of Quebec.