Flood of Assault Guns Aimed at U.S.

President Clinton’s effort to block the flow into the country of military-style assault weapons modified to skirt U.S. law has become complicated by the revelation that federal regulators have already approved the importation of up to 600,000 of the high-powered guns.

The 600,000 figure, which is significantly higher than most observers anticipated, is certain to complicate a heated debate at the White House over whether to broaden the administration’s recently proposed restrictions on future import permits for foreign assault weapons.

If the White House doesn’t widen its 3-week-old proposed directive--which has been criticized as a lukewarm response to the problem of redesigned assault weapons--the 600,000 guns would be allowed into the country.

“We all were more than a little surprised” at the figure, said a knowledgeable source in the Treasury Department, which has been researching the arms importation issue at the request of the White House.

Tuesday’s developments come three weeks after a senior White House official confirmed that Clinton planned to sign a directive to limit the influx of foreign-made assault weapons. At the time, the administration was committed to temporarily suspending the issuance of new import permits. Almost immediately, however, the administration’s proposed plan was criticized because it would not prohibit the importation of weapons that had already been granted permits by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

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It was unclear, then, exactly how many weapons had been granted permits. But in recent days, researchers at the Treasury Department have discovered that, in the last 12 months alone, ATF has approved import licenses for up to 600,000 modified assault weapons.

That discovery is sure to fan the internal debate at the White House, where lawyers are concerned that any action against import licenses that have already been granted may prompt lawsuits from gun importers.

Thirty U.S. senators, led by California’s Dianne Feinstein, have implored Clinton in a letter to use his executive authority to prevent the entrance into the country of foreign-made weapons that have come to symbolize the substantial shortcomings of the nation’s laws on assault weapons and weapons that don’t meet the legal definition of “sporting” guns.

Feinstein’s push came after a series in The Times revealed that gun makers have eluded restrictions on such weapons by making slight modifications that leave intact the lethal ability to accept high-capacity ammunition magazines of up to 100 rounds.

“What this clearly shows is that these weapons are coming into the country in the hundreds of thousands,” said Feinstein. “This country will be flooded with these weapons, which means that the president’s executive order is more important than ever.

“It’s pretty clear,” Feinstein added, “that two-thirds to four-fifths of the American people believe that we have no need for semiautomatic assault weapons in the United States of America. The people draw the line there.”

Josh Sugarmann, head of the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C., reacted strongly to the news that more than 500,000 modified assault weapons have been approved for import. “This shows that it is essential that these weapons be stopped,” Sugarmann said.

A White House official contacted Tuesday would not comment.

Until the president’s directive on foreign-made weapons is finalized and signed--an action expected to be completed more than a week ago--the ATF has suspended action on any import licenses, a move that has drawn the ire of some in the firearms industry.

Tanya K. Metaksa, chief lobbyist for the National Rifle Assn., criticized ATF for refusing to act on new applications for import permits.

“That’s clearly illegal for them to do under the procedures of the federal government,” Metaksa said.

Metaksa also argued that the foreign-made guns at the center of the discussion have a legitimate “sporting purpose” as is required by law and, perhaps more important, are not unlike domestically-produced weapons that are also legal under current law. She blamed Feinstein and other lawmakers for creating the loopholes that allow for cosmetically altered weapons to be made legal. “What the gun manufacturers have done has been to adhere to the law,” Metaksa said. “Now the government is saying we didn’t really mean what the law says.”

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Gun-control advocates, however, urged President Clinton to do as President Bush did in 1989 when he suspended importation of 43 models of semiautomatic assault weapons, including some that had already been approved for importation by the ATF.

“We call on the president to stand as firm as President Bush did,” said Luis Tolley, western director of Handgun Control Inc. “And we urge our allies who have a special relationship with the U.S. to be sensitive to America’s concern about the deadly carnage these weapons cause on our streets.

“The Uzis and other weapons have a clear record of destruction and mass murder,” Tolley added, “and just because the manufacturers have made a couple of cosmetic changes doesn’t legitimize them.”

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Times staff writer Elizabeth Shogren in Washington contributed to this story.