OTTAWA — Questioning the country's top cops' motive for supporting the long-gun registry isn't only the province of crazies.

While Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz caused a furor this week when he opined in an online op-ed the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police support the registry as a furtive means of taking away Canadians' guns, a more moderate Tom Flanagan said questioning their motive is legit.

"Police have a long history of taking positions against citizens' rights of self-defence. I think the gun registry fits into that tableau," said Flanagan, a University of Calgary prof and former senior advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

“If they want to play politics, that's fine, but then they have to understand they can't intervene in politics and assume that everybody will immediately bow down just because they're police chiefs.

"They represent organizations with a vested interest in maintaining their jobs and monopoly over the use of violence."

But a spokesman for Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, the most vocal advocate of the long-gun registry and president of the chiefs' association, defended the registry as a matter of “public safety,” and dismissed comments police have anything but an altruistic motive.

"The suggestion that police chiefs want to take away guns is ridiculous," said Mark Pugash. "Canadians are entitled to a debate or discussion that looks at the facts, not one which engages in abuse and insult. I don't think that has any place in this."

The NDP's Charlie Angus, a critic of the registry who voted with the government to scrap is last November, said attacking the police and accusing them of having an agenda is "dangerous,” and highlights the Conservatives' tendency to "demonize" anyone who disagrees with them.

"I think it's a very dangerous road to go down," Angus said. "To tell rural folk not to trust the police is wrong. They're putting their lives on the line every day. There's no way my police chief has an agenda."

A third and final vote on Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner's private member's bill to scrap the long-gun registry is expected later this month, provided it survives a Liberal motion to throw out her bill on Sept. 22.

bryn.weese@sunmedia.ca