Victims of three school shootings in Montreal say they will blame federal NDP Leader Jack Layton if legislation calling for the abolition of the gun registry is adopted.

Dawson College shooting victim Hayder Khadim was among those calling on NDP Leader Jack Layton to enforce party discipline in an upcoming vote on the gun registry. (CBC)A dozen people who were wounded or lost family members in the École Polytechnique massacre, as well as fatal shootings at Concordia University and Dawson College, said Bill C-391 must be blocked.

Gathered together in public for the first time on Friday, the victims expressed frustration with Layton's refusal to enforce party discipline and demand that all NDP MPs vote against the bill in the upcoming vote, which could be held as early as next week.

With some rural MPs under pressure to support the bill, Layton has said he would allow for a free vote.

Supporters of the registry, however, say the stray NDP votes in favour of the bill could be enough for it to pass.

The Liberals and Bloc Québécois are committed to preserving the registry, but the Conservatives and two independent MPs are expected to vote in favour of its abolition.

Six months after the fatal shooting at Dawson College in September 2006, Hayder Khadim said Layton gave him a personal promise that he would do everything in his power to protect the registry.

Khadim, 21, was left with a bullet lodged in his neck when he was shot by Kimveer Gill.

In all, the shooting injured 19 people and left one woman, 18-year old Anastasia DeSousa, dead.

Playing political game

"It makes me feel like he is playing a political game," said Khadim. "I mean, in front of us, he is a completely strong advocate of gun control — someone who you feel would be one of the strongest to impose a party line or anything like that, to make sure the gun registry would be saved."

Khadim was joined by Mark Hogben, the son of a chemistry professor killed at Concordia University when a deranged professor, Valery Fabrikant, went on a shooting rampage in 1992.

'I know as does Mr. Layton that to destroy the gun registry is to destroy lives, so we don't need to be convinced on this.'— Thomas Mulcair, deputy NDP leader

Michael Hogben was one of four of Fabrikant's colleagues killed that day.

His son said he finds it painful to talk about his father's death but felt he had no choice.

"I'm worried about the politics going on right now, and I am hoping Mr. Layton will be the voice for us," Hogben said.

The registry is a type of monument to the victims of the 1989 massacre of 14 women at École Polytechnique in Montreal, said Jean-François Larivée, whose wife, Maryse Laganière, was one of the women killed at the engineering school.

Layton working to support registry: deputy leader

Layton was not in Ottawa on Friday, but the party's deputy leader, Thomas Mulcair, said the party respects the fact that a "small number" of MPs "feel that the issue is of great importance for them and their constituents."

Deputy NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair says Layton is working to convince all the party's MPs to vote against the bill. (CBC)The NDP leader is working hard to change their minds, said Mulcair.

"I know, as does Mr. Layton, that to destroy the gun registry is to destroy lives, so we don't need to be convinced on this," Mulcair said.

If passed, Bill C-391 would scrap the decade-old registry and destroy existing data within the system on about seven million shotguns and rifles.

The legislation was proposed by Manitoba Tory backbencher Candice Hoeppner.

The Conservatives have long opposed the gun registry, brought in by the former Liberal government in response to the Polytechnique massacre.

However, there is unwavering support for the gun registry from such groups as the Coalition for Gun Control, the Canadian Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Police Association.