People scarred by Montreal's Dawson College gun tragedy appealed to the government on Tuesday to outlaw semi-automatic assault weapons and drop plans to close a federal registry of rifles and shotguns.

Police evacuate students at Dawson College in Montreal during a shooting incident on Sept. 13.
(Peter McCabe/Canadian Press)

On Sept. 13, Kimveer Gill, a death-obsessed gun club member, burst into the college with three firearms, including a Beretta Cx4 Storm semi-automatic carbine, and opened fire.

An 18-year-old business student, Anastasia De Sousa, was killed and 19 others were wounded before Gill, whose weapons were legally registered, shot himself.

"On Sept. 13, I woke up my daughter Anastasia to get her to school," Louise De Sousa told reporters in Ottawa, "and she said that she would come home later.

Anastasia De Sousa was killed when a gunman burst into Montreal's Dawson College in September.

"I gave her a peck on the cheek and said goodbye, not realizing that would be the last time I'd see my daughter alive."

Nelson De Sousa, the dead woman's father, said she was felled by "nine bullets from the shiny gun of a madman" whose "military-type" weapon should have been banned.

"The wounded are in wheelchairs, crutches, therapy, medication and pain," he said.

"Armies of psychologists tend to their needs, many of their families unable to function normally, always thinking how close their son or daughter came to the same tragic end as my Anastasia.… 

"If changes aren't made soon, then do Canadians add bullet-proof vests to their school supplies list next year?"

The De Sousas and student Hayder Kadhim, who was shot three times, appeared in a news conference with interim Liberal Leader Bill Graham and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe. The two politicians oppose the plan to scrap the long gun registry, which the Liberals created over gun owners' protests at a cost of more than $1 billion. 

Bullet remains in neck 

Kadhim, 18, described the shooting:

"I was standing in front of the doors of my college when it all happened. Before I was shot, a bystander was shot twice in the head and abruptly fell on his back, unconscious.

"It was the most bloody, horrible and terrifying scene of my life. My first instinct was to run away from the danger zone I was in, but I couldn't because I was shot three times, once in the head, once in the neck, once in the left leg."

He still has a bullet in his neck and bullet fragments in his head, he said.

"Forever I have two unwanted foreign bodies, two pieces of lead inside me, causing me headaches and dizziness as well as muscle pain in my neck, They tell me it is more dangerous to take out the bullets than leave them there."

'Obvious contradiction'

He has since emerged as a gun-control advocate.

"While I was still at the hospital, I was shocked when they told me that our prime minister, Stephen Harper, along with his Conservative party, were still planning to eliminate the long gun registry," he said.

"Back in the spring, they argued that the gun registry was useless because criminals don't buy their guns legally. Now the Harper government argues that the registry is ineffective because the shooter's firearms were totally legal. There's an obvious contradiction in their arguments.

"I don't understand why the Conservative government wants to dismantle the gun registry, which costs next to nothing to maintain.

One-year amnesty

"I don't understand why the government refuses to pass a simple order-in-council which would have outlawed semi-automatic assault weapons, including the Cx4 storm."

Gill owned that weapon under a restricted licence allowing him to fire it at the gun club.

In May, the Conservatives declared a one-year amnesty for owners who have not registered their non-restricted rifles and shotguns.

In June, they introduced a bill that would end registration of such weapons while continuing registration of handguns. The bill has yet to be passed.