ATF AMENDS IMPORT RULES FOR FIREARMS, AMMUNITION

ATF AMENDS IMPORT RULES FOR FIREARMS, AMMUNITION    The U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has implemented “Model Regulations” to standardize the procedures for the international movement of firearms and their parts, and ammunition to the United States.
   The agency based this move on the April 18, 1998 Summit of the Americas meeting in Santiago, Chile, where President Clinton promised the United States would draft firearm import regulations that are in line with those created by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission at the request of the Organizataion of American States.
   ATF hopes that these changes will help to prevent illegal trafficking of firearms and ammunition.
   The changes will be applied to the Arms Export Control Act and the Gun Control Act, both of which ATF enforces. They include final recipient information on import permits; presentation of export licenses to Customs to effect release of firearms, firearm parts and ammunition; more specific information on import permits; and revision of parts exemption.
   Some of these changes were coordinated with the enforcement missions of both State and Defense Departments.