Police and other groups in Halifax want the federal government to keep the long-gun registry. (Brian Dubreuil/CBC)A coalition of police, emergency-room staff and women's groups in Nova Scotia urged the federal government Wednesday to maintain Canada's long-gun registry.

Halifax Regional Police Chief Frank Beazley, speaking at a news conference, said scrapping the registry would do away with a valuable source of data and hamper investigations.

"We will lose access to data in excess of 65,000 registered guns that are owned just in the region of Halifax," he said.

"To lose that type of information when we're out doing criminal investigations will be devastating, but that's what will happen if this registry is abolished."

Pamela Harrison, executive director of the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia, said her groups use the program routinely to find out what weapons are in a home where spousal abuse is suspected.

"It's extraordinarily important in terms of preventing women's death," she said. "We use the registry all the time, particularly in cases that have the greatest risk of lethality."

Harrison said the registry, which requires gun owners to declare their rifles and shotguns, makes potential abusers aware that justice officials know they own weapons, and that may serve as a deterrent.

She said it's valuable because it can be used to set conditions and restrictions on gun possession for people who have been charged with offences, which women's advocates say increases safety.

Supporters rally

Harrison and Beazley were among the speakers at a news conference at Halifax Regional Police headquarters in Halifax. Stephanie McInnis-Langley, executive director of the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women, Janet Hazelton, president of the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union, and Halifax District RCMP Supt. Darrell Beaton also spoke.

The group issued the call to save the registry one week before federal MPs vote on a highly contested private member's bill next Wednesday to kill the registry. A Tory MP from Manitoba is behind the bill.

A Commons committee has recommended that the bill not proceed to third reading. If the recommendation is accepted, the bill will die.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the registry is a $1-billion waste that is ineffective and unfairly criminalizes law-abiding people who fail to register a gun.

But proponents say it is a useful investigative tool that has led to more responsible gun ownership and a reduction in suicides and deadly crimes of passion.

Hazelton, of the nurses union, said 88 per cent of Canadian women who are killed with guns are shot with long guns.

"Access to guns is the fifth-highest of 18 risk factors in spousal homicides," she said. "We believe the registry is one more tool that will help keep our citizens safe.

"We meet the victims who fall prey to long guns and attempt to save them. For those whom we are unable to save in spite of our utmost efforts, we meet their families whose lives are shattered by long guns."

Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton has said he has enough support within his party to prevent the registry from being scrapped.

With files from The Canadian Press