Quebec's Court of Appeal has ruled unanimously that the federal government does not have to hand data from the national long gun registry to the provincial government.

The Conservative government abolished the federal long gun registry last year, but Quebec asked Ottawa to hand over records on the 1.6 million long guns in this province.

Quebec Judge Marc-Andre Blanchard agreed with the demand and on Sept. 10, 2012 issued an injunction barring the federal government from destroying the database.

The federal government appealed that ruling, resulting in today's judgement in its favour.

According to the decision by five judges on the Court of Appeal, the federal government has the right to abolish the registry and destroy all its data.

In the judgement, Chief Justice Nicole Duval Hesler writes that "Quebec has no property right in the data" even if taxpayer money from Quebec helped pay for the database.

Duval Hesler wrote that nothing in the judgement prevents Quebec politicians from making a political argument for the information, nor from starting its own long gun registry.

Duval Hesler said that nothing in the judgement prevents Quebec politicians from making a political argument for the information, nor from starting its own long gun registry.

In its ruling the Court of Appeal extended the injunction preventing the federal government from destroying the registry data for two weeks in order to give the provincial government time to file an appeal.

Quebec's Justice Minister said the provincial government will do that, and is currently seeking grounds to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Supporters of the long gun registry were surprised by the Court of Appeal's verdict, pointing out it means Montreal police will immediately lose track of 75,000 firearms.

"We're very disappointed in the ruling. We believe the data belongs to Quebecers whose taxes have paid for them," said Heidi Rathjen.

The gun control advocate was at Ecole Polytechnique the day Marc Lepine had his deadly rampage which led to the creation of the gun control registry.

She said that police use the registry every day to protect average citizens.

"Ever since the Conservative government came into power it's been a difficult time for gun victims and their families," said Rathjen.

"The one light in this has been the determination of the Quebec government to fight the federal government."