Christie

[Timothy]

Import Ban on Assault Rifles Becomes Permanent  By SUSAN F. RASKY
Special to The New York Times
Published: July 08, 1989

The Bush Administration declared a permanent ban today on almost all foreign-made semiautomatic assault rifles. Imports of the weapons have been suspended since spring.

The permanent ban affects all but 7 of the 50 models included in the spring suspension. It does not affect the far larger number of virtually identical weapons manufactured domestically, nor does it affect foreign-made semiautomatic weapons already in the United States.

Americans own about three million semiautomatic weapons, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, an agency in the Treasury Department that enforces national gun laws. About 25 percent of those weapons are foreign models, including semiautomatic versions of military assault rifles like the Israeli Uzi or the AK-47 Soviet infantry rifle.

Administration officials said that without the ban 700,000 to one million foreign-made assault weapons would have been imported into the United States this year, but they acknowledged that the slack would easily be taken up by domestic manufacturers. A Significant Step

''We're not saying it will solve the basic problem,'' said Stephen E. Higgins, director of the firearms bureau, who announced the ban.

Today's decision is a significant step in the evolution of the Administration's gun control policies. It puts President Bush clearly at odds with the National Rifle Association and will almost certainly increase pressures on him to approve restrictions or an outright ban on domestic versions of semiautomatic assault weapons.

''The President was informed of the findings and decisions, and fully supports them,'' Alixe Glen, a White House spokeswoman, said of the ban announced today.

Senator Howard M. Metzenbaum of Ohio and Representative Pete Stark of California, both Democrats and leading Congressional advocates of stricter gun control, criticized the President for not going far enough and pledged to press for tighter restrictions on domestically produced assault weapons. Bills Pending in Congress

Several such bills are pending in Congress, and Mr. Stark said that with his action today Mr. Bush had given ''tacit approval'' to the idea of restricting all assault-style weapons. ''If one of these bills goes through, the President certainly will have no logical reason to justify a veto,'' Mr. Stark added.

Senator Metzenbaum said he would ask the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve legislation barring domestically manufactured assault weapons when it meets next Thursday.

Asserting that domestic assault weapons were ''favored by drug dealers and street gangs,'' he added, ''Any police officer will tell you it doesn't matter if you are killed by an imported or American-made assault weapon -you are just as dead.''

Semiautomatic rifles are those that require no manual action except a separate trigger pull to fire each bullet. Automatic weapons like machine guns fire a stream of bullets with a single trigger pull. President Shifts Stand

In the Presidential campaign last year Mr. Bush, a hunter and longtime member of the N.R.A., opposed to any bans on assault weapons. But a public outcry after a drifter armed with an AK-47 killed five schoolchildren in Stockton, Calif., in January helped convince others in the Administration that some limits were needed.

At the urging of William J. Bennett, the director of national drug control policy, the Administration suspended imports of certain types of semiautomatic assault rifles in March. The President expanded that temporary ban as part of a broader anticrime program that he announced in April, and said he would make it permanent for imported weapons that did not have a legitimate sporting use.

The 43 types of semiautomatic rifles now barred from entry into the United States were part of a group of 50 evaluated by the firearms bureau in a three-month study. The bureau has authority under the 1968 Gun Control Act to block imports of weapons not generally suitable to sporting use, but it does not regulate domestic manufacture of weapons.

Mr. Higgins said the bureau concluded that there were ''viable, clear differences between semiautomatic assault rifles and semiautomatic rifles used in traditional sports.'' Some distinguishing features of assault-style weapons, he said, are the ability to accept a detachable magazine and a centerfire cartridge that is less than 2 1/4 inches long. Six Rimfire Rifles Exempted

A centerfire cartridge is one whose detonator is set in the center of the cartridge base, rather than in the rim of the base. High-power rifles typically use centerfire cartridges.

Of the seven models exempted from the import ban, six are .22-caliber rimfire rifles and the other is a gun called the Valmet Hunter, which had been considered during the suspension period to be one of the AK-47 types.

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/08/us/import-ban-on-assault-rifles-becomes-permanent.html

Seems that he let the 1968 Gun Control Act enforce the ban rather than write an Executive order.  I've now read all 166 of his EO's and cannot find a single word.

Gunman is correct...

[gunman42782]

Thank you Timothy.  I thought it was an EO, but whatever it was, I remember it like it was yesterday.  Pissed me off enough to join the NRA, and have been a member ever since.  (By the way, my name is Timothy too!)

[Timothy]

Thank you Timothy.  I thought it was an EO, but whatever it was, I remember it like it was yesterday.  Pissed me off enough to join the NRA, and have been a member ever since.  (By the way, my name is Timothy too!)

No problem, Tim..

I like facts, they're stubborn things!   

T

[tombogan03884]

I don't know what this crap is, but judging by the number of AK , G3, and SKS rifles I've bought, all since June of 89 (when I got my first SKS ) This is bullsh!t .

[Timothy]

<snip>

" nor does it affect foreign-made semiautomatic weapons already in the United States."

[Sponsor]

[tombogan03884]

I still say it's Bullsh!t.
in 1989 the "Cold war" was still in progress, there were NO Russian made AK's, SKS's, Mosin Nagants, ammo, etc, on the legal market in the US.
Every single one of those came in after 1991, in other words, 2 years or more after this so called "permanent" ban.

[Timothy]

I still say it's Bullsh!t.
in 1989 the "Cold war" was still in progress, there were NO Russian made AK's, SKS's, Mosin Nagants, ammo, etc, on the legal market in the US.
Every single one of those came in after 1991, in other words, 2 years or more after this so called "permanent" ban.

So, the NY Times published an inaccurate story, Tom?

Sarcasm.... you're a fine googlefooer....  find a link...  I really don't give a shit anymore what GHW Bush did...  It's nothing compared to what's coming...

I read his executive orders, all 166 of them , nd can't find anything but this article to substantiate the claim.  There is however, a lot of hearsay on the old interweb...

[gunman42782]

I still say it's Bullsh!t.
in 1989 the "Cold war" was still in progress, there were NO Russian made AK's, SKS's, Mosin Nagants, ammo, etc, on the legal market in the US.
Every single one of those came in after 1991, in other words, 2 years or more after this so called "permanent" ban.

I don't know how old you are, but you can call it bullshit all day.  I was there, I remember it being all over the news, I have American Rifleman magazines talking about it, it happened.  You either have selective memory or just don't want to admit GHW Bush was anti gun.  Hell, GW Bush said he would sign an assault weapon ban if one reached his desk, knowing full well it never would...

[Herknav]

Bush Sr DID close the machine gun registry.

He did no such thing.  The Hughes Amendment closed the Machine Gun Registry, and it was signed into law on May 19, 1986 (along with the Firearms Owners' Protection Act) by Ronnie Raygun.

[tombogan03884]

So, the NY Times published an inaccurate story, Tom?

Sarcasm.... you're a fine googlefooer....  find a link...  I really don't give a shit anymore what GHW Bush did...  It's nothing compared to what's coming...

I read his executive orders, all 166 of them , nd can't find anything but this article to substantiate the claim.  There is however, a lot of hearsay on the old interweb...

Are you sh!tting me ?
The NYT has been printing lies since at least the 1920's.
Does the name Jason Blair ring any bells ?