How many bills does it take to kill or save the long-gun registry?

So, if you were watching the Jack Layton news conference today, you would have heard that many of the questions from reporters were about how his proposed bill would work, timing-wise.

See, on Sept. 22 there will be a vote in the House of Commons about whether Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner's private member's bill to scrap the long-gun registry. That vote came from a motion passed in June at the Public Safety Committee. So, before there is a vote on Hoeppner's bill (which will be its third reading), there will be a vote on whether to go forward or not with that bill.

So how does Layton see his bill, which he says would be a compromise, in that would retain the registry but get rid of a lot of things that bug gun owners, working its way into the mix? Correct me if I missed something (no, really, correct me...I may indeed have missed something), but he wasn't entirely clear or explicit in his answer. When would his bill be introduced? How would it affect the vote on the 22nd? Or if Hoeppner's bill goes to third reading, how will Layton's bill affect that vote, or be affected by that vote?

Perhaps Layton is hoping that this proposed legislation of his will sway some of his NDP MPs who have so far supported Hoeppner's bill, to stop it in its tracks before it even goes to third reading. Can those rural and northern NDP MPs sell their leader's compromise bill to their constituents?

If they aren't swayed and the Sept. 22 vote is won by the anti-registry side, then presumably (and again, I welcome procedural experts to correct me) Hoeppner's bill would go to third reading before Layton's private member bill would get anywhere near a vote.

Unless the other opposition parties jump on board and they try to push it through more quickly, if that's even possible. Layton pointed to the New Veterans Charter as an example of how a compromise bill can be fast tracked (but then 1) the government was also onside and 2) look how much veterans dislike the new charter). And let's not fail to point out that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff seems to be having more success in whipping his party vote, and might not want to help out Layton seeing as Ignatieff has proposed "compromises" of his own (albeit his compromises aren't headed for legislation this fall, but would be put forward if the Liberals formed government).

So, while I am not a fan of the cliché "time will tell," that seems to be the best response right now when trying to answer what happens from here.