NCJ Number
175225
Date Published
1998
Length
72 pages
Annotation
This study offers a brief chronology of the renewed debate over the purchase of foreign-made semiautomatic rifles in relation to the position of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) on the import of such weapons.
Abstract
The study contains four sections, the first of which provides a short narrative of important events in the debate over imported assault weapons. The second section includes pictures of specific firearms considered for import by ATF. The third section provides information on criminal traces for specific foreign-made assault weapons broken out by State for 1995 and 1996. The fourth section is comprised of appendixes that identify original source documents cited in the first section of the study in chronological order. The study concludes the ATF has not adequately regulated the import of assault weapons and identifies the major shortcoming of ATF's approach as its unwillingness to develop import criteria that treat assault weapons as a distinct firearms class. Instead, the ATF relies on a gun-by-gun analysis and this has allowed manufacturers to make slight cosmetic modifications that have little effect on weapon lethality. Figures and photographs