OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jack Layton is floating a last-minute compromise to save the long-gun registry in a bid to also keep his political reputation from sinking.

Layton wants to introduce legislation that would address some of the complaints about the long-gun registry and potentially stave off a final vote on a private member's bill that would kill the program altogether.

His bill would see penalties for non-registration begin as non-criminal fines, no charges for registering guns, and stronger protection for aboriginal treaty rights and privacy rights of gun-owners.

But Layton is racing against the clock. His bill would have to be introduced and pass all three readings before Tory MP Candice Hoeppner's bill comes up for its final vote towards the end of September.

Her bill passed second reading last fall by a vote of 164-137 because 12 New Democrats and eight Liberals from rural or northern ridings bucked their own parties.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has said he'll force his MPs to vote along party lines when the bill comes back before the House next month.

In exchange, Ignatieff has said, a Liberal government would introduce similar changes to the ones Layton is proposing.

That leaves NDP MPs with the voting power to cancel the registry or keep it alive, as the party doesn't whip votes on private members' bills.

Layton, under extreme pressure as the party leader now on the hook for the registry's fate, attempted to dodge the political fallout Monday. But his proposed solution doesn't change the dynamics of critical votes that will take place in parliament before any NDP bill comes up for debate.

"If we make the changes that can allow urban, rural and northern Canada to feel that they are not being slapped in the face, that their legitimate concerns about the registry are being understood, then we have a win-win scenario," Layton said at a news conference.

He wouldn't address whether his proposed bill would change how NDP MPs vote on the Tory legislation.

"It's a continuing discussion," he said.

While the Tories stand to gain the most politically from the passage of Hoeppner's private bill to abolish the registry, it's Layton who stands to lose.

Urban voters like those in his Toronto riding, as well as police chiefs, emergency room doctors, and a host of other groups who have urged MPs to keep the registry going, are likely to blame the NDP for its defeat.

But Layton said the bill wasn't about him.

"This is about trying to actually get us off the track that Mr. Harper has put us on, which is an all-or-nothing, divide Canadians one against the other, vilify one side or the other," he said.

"This is not Canadian, the approach he is taking."

A group in favour of scrapping the registry said neither the NDP nor the Liberal approach works.

"While there is a high level of resentment against the registry in rural Canada the fact remains that the largest firearms retailers in Canada are located in the cities, because that's where many outdoors sports enthusiasts reside," the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action said in a press release.

"This weak attempt to play to a declining urban base while trying to placate the rest of Canada, only serves to alienate all Canadians, regardless of where they live."

On his northern tour last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper repeatedly brought up the gun registry in his speeches, claiming Canadians want its speedy demise.

"We are fighting an Opposition coalition on this that has an ideology that turns the criminal justice system completely upside down," Harper told a Conservative rally in Whitehorse.

"Canadians want to keep guns out of the hands of street criminals so the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois want a registry to keep guns out of the hands of farmers and duck hunters."

The Liberal MP for the Yukon, Larry Bagnell, has long opposed the registry but under Ignatieff, would be forced to vote in favour of keeping it in place.