The survivors of the École Polytechnique massacre head to Ottawa on Thursday in hopes of saving the long-gun registry and to make sure they haven't been forgotten.

Their visit comes after Conservative MP Bernard Généreux insisted the gun registry has nothing to do with the December 1989 shooting rampage.

The Quebec Tory said the registry was instead created by former prime minister Jean Chrétien's government in 1995 following intense pressure from a gun-control coalition.

But that very coalition was formed as a result of the Polytechnique shooting that left 14 women dead at the Montreal school, survivors and their families say.

A private member's bill introduced by Tory MP Candice Hoeppner seeks to scrap the long-gun registry.

The bill has already passed two readings in the House of Commons with support from eight Liberal MPs and a third of the NDP caucus. A third passage will send it to the Senate.

Suzanne Laplante Edward, the mother of one of the Polytechnique victims, Anne-Marie Edward, is calling on NDP leader Jack Layton to force his MPs to protect the registry.

"The future of gun control in Canada depends on you, Jack," she wrote in an open letter to Layton.

"Only you can avoid passage of bill C-391 by imposing party line."