Imported Guns: Just What Is a Sports Weapon?

Hundreds of thousands of foreign military-style assault weapons are being imported into the United States despite a federal law that prohibits the importation of any firearm that is not for “sporting purposes.”

The 1968 Gun Control Act makes it illegal to import any firearm unless it is “generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes. . . .”

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms uses that law to ban cheap foreign-made handguns and some other firearms, but Israeli Uzis, Chinese AK-47s and other foreign-made assault weapons are pouring into the country with the approval of federal authorities.

Ban Held Possible

“I don’t think the law is being properly applied,” said Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), who has introduced legislation to ban the possession, sale, manufacture and importation of assault weapons. “These are not weapons that can be reasonably construed as having legitimate sporting functions. And I think the existing law could easily be applied to ban the (importation of) civilian versions of the Uzis and AK-47s. . . .”

Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles), author of a similar bill on the state level, said that after learning of the federal importation law he is drafting a state resolution to ask the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to re-evaluate its policy of allowing Uzis and AK-47s into the country.

Both the Uzi and the AK-47--semiautomatic versions of fully automatic military rifles--are increasingly used by drug dealers and youth gangs on the streets of Los Angeles and other American cities, according to law enforcement officials.

The weapons have been used routinely in street crimes that often get little attention outside the areas in which they occur, law enforcement officers say. But the firearms have also been used in widely reported mass murders.

An Uzi was among the weapons used in San Ysidro on July 18, 1984, by a deranged gunmen who killed 21 people and wounded 15 others at a McDonald’s restaurant. And a Chinese AK-47 was used in the Jan. 17 attack in a Stockton schoolyard that left five children dead and 30 wounded in a matter of minutes.

Popular Chinese Model

More than 88,000 AK-47s, most of them from China, were imported into the United States from January, 1985, through November, 1988, according to federal data. About 75,000 Uzi carbines have been imported from Israel since 1980, according to Action Arms Ltd. of Philadelphia, sole U.S. importer of the weapon.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms officials say their policy of allowing importation of Uzis and AK-47s as sporting weapons is based on a decision made 20 years ago by the Treasury Department firearms evaluation panel, which held meetings during a two-month period in December, 1968, and January, 1969, and then disbanded.

The bureau, in a written response to questions from The Times, said the federal firearms panel did not examine Uzis or AK-47s, but determined that several civilian models of other military weapons made in foreign countries “had a particular use in target shooting and hunting.”

“It was recommended that these types of semiautomatic versions of . . . military rifles be approved for importation,” the bureau statement said. The bureau said that years later it used that evaluation in deciding to permit importation of Uzis and AK-47s as sporting weapons.

‘Saturday Night Specials’

But a former member of the federal firearms panel told The Times that the six-member body paid scant attention to the importing of foreign rifles and concentrated instead on handguns in an attempt to screen out cheap “Saturday night specials.”

Harold E. Johnson, a former Army weapons expert and now a private firearms consultant, said the federal panel looked briefly at four semiautomatic versions of foreign military rifles to make sure that they were not readily convertible from semiautomatic to fully automatic fire.

(A fully automatic weapon, also called a machine gun, fires a steady stream of bullets with a single pull of the trigger. A semiautomatic weapon fires one bullet for each pull of the trigger.)

The panel did not try to determine whether the rifles were suitable for sporting purposes, said Johnson, but the particular weapons examined “were basically (suitable as) target rifles and relatively expensive. . . . There was a lot of interest (in these rifles) in match shooting and a lot of collector interest. But they were never used in crimes that I know of because they were too big and expensive.”

Less Expensive Types

As for the smaller, less expensive imports such as the Uzi and AK-47, Johnson said: “Nobody had ever thought about those. They weren’t imported back in those days.”

The question of what constitutes the sporting purposes of a firearm has become a central issue in the increasingly heated debates over proposed federal, state and local legislation to outlaw assault weapons. Opponents of the firearms say they are instruments of death, specifically designed to kill human beings. Their defenders say they are not only collectors’ items and guns that are useful for self-defense, but also are suitable for sporting purposes.

What are the sporting purposes of a firearm?

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said a weapon must be suitable for hunting or target shooting to be a sporting firearm and therefore importable. Target shooting, said the bureau, does not include what is called “plinking”--shooting at tin cans.

In the case of handguns, the bureau uses objective criteria developed by the Treasury Department firearms evaluation panel to determine whether the weapons are importable. The criteria, meant to prohibit importation of cheap handguns, include such features as barrel length, weight, caliber, safety mechanisms and construction.

Lack of Criteria

But for rifles and shotguns, few such objective importation criteria exist.

To be importable for civilian use, a rifle--like other weapons--cannot be capable of automatic fire. Neither can it be readily convertible to fully automatic fire--a judgment that is somewhat less objective.

Finally, there are the highly subjective hunting and target shooting questions.

In 1986, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms denied importation of a South African riot shotgun called the Striker 12, maintaining that the weapon had little hunting or target shooting value.

The bureau was unimpressed with the applicant’s argument that “combat shotguns are importable because they have sporting use, such as bowling pin shooting competitions.”

The effect of the importation ban, however, was short-lived. A copy of the Striker 12 was soon produced domestically by an Atlanta company that called it the Street Sweeper. It is advertised to the American public as having “awesome firepower, 12 rounds in less than three seconds.”

From Favored Nations

But neither the Uzi nor the AK-47 has been forced to undergo such a domestic reincarnation. In the case of the Chinese-made AK-47, domestic production would almost certainly cause an increase in price due to the higher cost of American labor. The prices of both weapons are held down somewhat because both China and Israel enjoy “most favored nation” status as trading partners of the United States and pay low import fees.

Defenders of assault weapons argue that some of the firearms, such as the American-made AR-15 and M1A, are popular and effective target rifles.

But are the Uzi and the AK-47 suitable for target or hunting purposes?

First, the Uzi.

The most popular model of the Uzi, made by Israel Military Industries, is the carbine. It is a civilian copy of the submachine gun named after Uziel Gal, who began development of the weapon for the Israeli armed forces in 1949.

The civilian version, like the military model, is a compact black rifle with a folding stock that allows it to be fired from the hip as well as the shoulder. With the stock folded, the import-model carbine is only 24.4 inches long, and the ease of concealment causes concern among law enforcement officials. The weapon holds magazines containing up to 32 rounds of 9-millimeter ammunition.

Controlled in Israel

Although Americans in most states can buy the Uzi carbine across the counter, it is not available to most civilians in Israel, where strict gun control laws are in effect, according to Ilan Mor, spokesman for the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles. He said an exception is made for residents of settlements under threat of terrorism, who may be issued weapons.

The Uzi carbine--which sells for $500 to $700--was first introduced into the United States for the civilian market in 1980 after several models were rejected by federal authorities as too easily convertible to fully automatic fire.

While the weapon finally approved for importation is not easily converted into a fully automatic rifle, independent entrepreneurs have put a conversion kit on the American market with which to do so.

“Anybody with any mechanical ability should (be able) to do it in an hour,” said a federal weapons expert, who asked not to be identified.

Such fully automatic Uzis subsequently began turning up in the hands of criminals, but many of the conversion kits, which have been deemed illegal, have been confiscated and the supply seems to be drying up, said the federal weapons expert.

Collector Customers

C. B. Stern, operations manager for Action Arms, importer of the Uzi, said that two-thirds of the customers who answer a company questionnaire said they bought the weapons as collectors’ items.

“The other third,” he said, “is everything between home protection, plinking, target shooting, self-defense . . . survival--some people think Armageddon is around the corner and they want to be ready.”

As for target shooting--one of the sporting criteria for importation--the Uzi, with its 9-millimeter pistol ammunition and short 16.1-inch barrel, doesn’t have the range or accuracy for rifle competition, gun experts say.

The public education division of the National Rifle Assn. indicates that Uzis are not used in the national championship large-bore rifle competitions, co-sponsored by the NRA. Neither is the weapon suitable for any kind of serious hunting, gun experts say.

Ammunition magazines for the Uzi, which contain 20 to 32 bullets, are illegal under the hunting regulations of some states that limit the amount of ammunition a rifle may hold.

Not for Killing Animals

Jerry Upholt, executive director of the California Wildlife Federation and the California Sportsman Lobby, said the Uzi does not have the range for hunting game.

“I’m not aware of anybody that uses an . . . Uzi to go hunting,” he said.

As head of the Sportsman Lobby, Upholt opposes abolition of assault rifles. He said that rather than being a hunting weapon, the Uzi is “more suitable for protection of the home and for recreation. . . . A lot of people like to go out in the country and set up cans. . . . People love to plink with it.”

The real appeal of the Uzi carbine to the non-criminal buyer, say many gun experts, is its aura as an Israeli commando weapon.

“These are real fantasy toys (for) cabbage patch commandoes,” said a federal gun expert who asked not to be identified.

Ray Holt, general manager of B & B Sales, a popular gun store in North Hollywood, said of the weapon:

“The Uzi is designed to break in the door and kill everybody.”

Enter the AK-47

The Chinese AK-47 arrived on the American scene in 1984, four years later than the Uzi, but it seems to have overtaken the Israeli weapon in popularity, probably because many models are cheaper--selling for less than $300--and because the AK-47 is much more powerful.

The AK-47 was developed as a fully automatic submachine gun by Mikhail Kalashnikov for Soviet troops shortly after World War II and subsequently was adopted by the armed forces of other Communist Bloc countries.

There is inescapable irony in the importation into the United States of the civilian version of the weapon. Twenty years before an AK-47 was used by a crazed gunman to kill Asian-American schoolchildren in Stockton, the military version of the weapon was used by North Vietnamese troops to kill American soldiers in Southeast Asia.

The AK-47 is being exported by a poor Third World communist country to a wealthy capitalist nation, where it is used with increasing frequency by black gang members to kill other impoverished blacks on the streets. While the weapon is readily available in U.S. cities, strict gun-control regulations in China prohibit ordinary citizens in urban areas from possessing AK-47s, or anything comparable.

Holds 30-Round Clips

The AK-47 comes equipped with three banana clips, each holding 30 rounds. Drum magazines holding up to 100 rounds are also available. A bayonet is frequently included. Some models have folding stocks that make them more easily concealable.

The main importers of the AK-47 are China Sports Inc. of Santa Fe Springs and Keng’s Firearm Specialty Inc. of Riverdale, Ga.

The annual Complete Book of Assault Rifles magazine said in its 1989 issue that a dozen special “National Match AK-47s,” equipped with 20.9-inch barrels and accurate enough for target competition, have been imported from China.

But the standard AK-47 with its short 16.3-inch barrel and 7.62x39-millimeter ammunition does not have the range or the accuracy to satisfy most serious competitive shooters.

None of the competitors in last year’s national championship large-bore rifle competition, co-sponsored by the National Rifle Assn., used an AK-47, according to the NRA’s public education division.

“Most of the people who buy the guns use them to plink with,” said Steve Langford, marketing director of China Sports. “It is a gun that can be fun to shoot.”

Overkill for Game

Langford said the AK-47 is also used to hunt small- and medium-size game. But the AK-47, while powerful enough to rip through one side of a car and out the other in a drive-by shooting, is considered a marginal hunting weapon because of its lack of range and accuracy.

Some hunting enthusiasts give the AK-47 a lukewarm endorsement.

Upholt of the California Wildlife Federation said he does not know anyone who uses an AK-47 for hunting, although he noted that it is only slightly less powerful than the lever-action 30-30, which is used for hunting deer at relatively close range.

“It could be used for that purpose,” said Upholt, who then expressed the view of most hunters: “I prefer a bolt action.”

Wayne Klein, a chief game warden in Northern California with the state Department of Fish and Game, said his officers have not encountered AK-47s in the field, but he has received reports of hunters with such weapons buying deer hunting licenses.

“They acquired a gun and want to go deer hunting, but they’re not deer hunters,” Klein said. “It’s a trendy type of thing. Most deer hunters have their favorite guns that they’ve been using a long time, not some Russian thing that shows up.”

Regulation Problems

As with the Uzi, the AK-47 also encounters the problem of regulations in some states, other than California, that limit the number of bullets that can be held in a hunter’s rifle. Hunting magazines that hold five rounds may be ordered for AK-47s, but are not standard equipment, gun dealers say.

Beyond the practical and legal questions, there is a philosophical issue in using an AK-47 with a 30-round banana clip to hunt deer.

“It flies in the face of tradition as far as I’m concerned,” said Lanny Clavecilla, information officer with the California Department of Fish and Game.

“A tenet of deer hunting,” he explained, “is to cleanly take the animal with one shot.”

Times staff writers Rich Roberts and David Holley contributed to this story.

THE MARKETING OF ASSAULT WEAPONS An American magazine specializes in assault weapons, many of which are imported, while U.S. companies publish brochures promoting Chinese AK-47s, above, and Israeli Uzis, below. Such weapons are pouring into the U.S. from foreign countries, especially Israel and China, despite a federal law that bans importation of firearms that are not for “sporting purposes.”