Clinton freezes imported assault weapons [CNN]

[Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>]

Forwarded message:

>                   CLINTON FREEZES IMPORTS OF ASSAULT WEAPONS
>                                        
>      graphic November 15, 1997
>      Web posted at: 1:19 p.m. EST (1819 GMT)
>      
>      LAS VEGAS (CNN) -- President Clinton has ordered a four-month freeze
>      on the import of assault weapons while the administration and
>      Treasury Department officials develop a plan to permanently ban the
>      weapons.
>      
>      Clinton announced his executive order, issued Friday, in his weekly
>      radio address.
>      
>      "I'm not going to let people overseas turn our streets into battle
>      zones, where gangs are armed like they were guerrilla warriors
>      halfway around the world, if I could stop it," he told supporters at
>      a Democratic fund-raising dinner in Las Vegas on Friday.
>      
>      The freeze will keep an estimated 1.6 million weapons from coming
>      into the United States while Treasury officials review a ban passed
>      in 1994 as part of a larger crime bill. Clinton says overseas
>      manufacturers are taking advantage of a loophole in the law by
>      making cosmetic changes that enable the weapons to be imported for
>      "sporting" purposes.
>      
>      Clinton seems to be angered by a recent surge in the number of
>      permit applications for the modified weapons.
>      
>      Officials say firearms importers have obtained permits for the
>      shipment of nearly 600,000 altered guns, and that an additional 1
>      million permit applications are pending. Approximately 20,000 of the
>      weapons have already entered the country, officials said.
>      
>      No more will be imported until the Treasury Department's review is
>      completed. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms stopped
>      taking applications last month, the Washington Post reported on
>      Friday.
>      
>      The National Rifle Association says Clinton's order "shows more
>      hypocrisy and deception than ever before."
>      
>      "The guns Clinton wishes to ban from importation conform in every
>      way to the law Clinton wrote, signed, pledged would rid the streets
>      of violence in 1994, and trumpets to the press whenever his scandals
>      get out of hand," said NRA spokeswoman Tanya Metaksa.
>      
>      Correspondent John King, The Associated Press and Reuters
>      contributed to this report.