It started when Toronto Mayor, David Miller became aware, during the recent Sportsmans' Show, that Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA), a group of legally registered firearm owners, was raffling off a legally registered Beretta handgun at their fundraising dinner next month. Outraged that the Sportsmans' Show was held at the City of Toronto owned Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) and that 30 - 40% of street crime in the city is done with firearms stolen from legally registered firearms owners (though only rifles and not handguns were displayed at the Sportsmans' Show), Mayor David Miller dictated that no firearms, that is long guns (rifles) as well as handguns are to be displayed at the Sportsmans' Show.

At the Sportsmans' Show there was already speculation by the organizers' whether they could afford to have the show at all.

On the Saturday of the show the "Hunters and Anglers Association", the organizers of the Sportsmans' Show had their annual dinner (in Mississaugua) and their guest speaker was Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The topic of his speech was the uselessness of the long gun registry, an effort that has cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars (handguns have been registered for a long time).

Finally the Sportsmans Show organizers came to an agreement that they will hold the "show" at the province owned Metropolitan Convention Centre, creating a loss to the city of $750,000 in rent.

"None of this decision to ban firearms from (Canadian National Exhibition) Exhibition Place or other city property is going to help us reduce gun violence in the City of Toronto," said Scarborough Councillor Michael Thompson.

"This is another example of (Mayor) David Miller trying to create an impression he's doing something about guns when, in fact, it has done nothing but penalize innocent people," said Councillor Doug Holyday (former Etobicoke mayor).

In the meantime Mayor Miller probably finds that attacking the law abiding citizens at the Sportamans' Show is easier than facing the fact that Toronto has lost the war against crime.

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