Three top police associations came together today to defend the long-gun registry, even as the Conservative government called upon three retired cops to condemn it.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Police Association and the Canadian Association of Police Boards have come out against a private-member's bill that aims to scrap the registry.

The heads of all three groups - representing police chiefs, frontline officers and the boards that employ them - say perceptions of the registry are dated and full of misconceptions.

They say it got off to a bad start, but it's not the billion-dollar boondoggle it's made out to be and costs taxpayers just $4 million a year.

But Manitoba Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner, who tabled the bill, countered with her own news conference featuring three former Winnipeg SWAT team members who say the registry is all but useless.

Hoeppner contends police are divided on the issue and retired cop Jack Tinsley says registry opponents within police ranks across the country have been muzzled.

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 where a Conservative plurality makes its adoption much more likely.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff supports a reduction or elimination in penalties for long-gun owners but wants to keep the registry. He's said he will order his MPs to vote against the bill when it comes up for third and final reading.

William Blair, president of the police chiefs' association, says the registry saves lives, and notes that 87,000 of 111,000 firearms seized last year were rifles or shotguns.

Charles Momy, representing officers, says long guns are used twice as frequently in domestic-violence situations involving firearms and five times as often in gun-related suicides.

The long-gun registry has been highly divisive since its inception. A Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll released in November suggested 46 per cent of Canadians believed abolishing it was a good idea, while 41 per cent opposed abolition.