NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) A national gun rights lobbying group based in Connecticut has severed ties with a gun show organizer over the company's decision to restrict sales of assault weapons at an unrelated event earlier this year.

The Newtown-based National Sports Shooting Foundation says the ban imposed by Reed Exhibitions at its hunting and fishing show conflicts with the group's mission to serve the shooting sports industry. Reed's show was originally scheduled for February in Harrisburg, Pa., but it was canceled following an outcry over the assault weapons ban.

Reed Exhibitions also had been the manager and producer of gun shows put on by the NSSF for three decades, but the lobbying group said in a statement Thursday that it and the company had terminated their agreement.