Quoted: I thought Bush Sr. banned the import of non sporting firearms in '90 via EO?
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No EO was involved at all; this is a common misbelief among gun owners. In 1989 at President Bush Sr's direction, BATF re-interpreted the sporting purpose clause in the 1968 GCA to ban the imports of certain firearms
I hate to cite the Brady Campaign, but this is one of the
very few instances where they've actually got their facts straight.
http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/faqs/?page=awb
Prior to passage of the federal assault weapons ban, the importation of certain types of assault weapons from overseas had been banned during the Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations. Such bans were ordered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) under the 1968 Gun Control Act, which grants the ATF the power to prevent the importation of guns which are not "particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes."
Under the Reagan Administration, the ATF blocked the importation of certain models of shotguns that were not suitable for sporting purposes. In 1989, during the George H.W. Bush Administration, the ATF expanded this list to permanently ban the importation of 43 types of semi-automatic assault rifles that were also determined not to have a sporting purpose.