Updated 1:46 AM ET February 25, 2000
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The White House is suspending the export of
ammunition, handguns and rifles to Canada, after noticing a large volume
of sales in the past nine months, U.S. and Canadian officials told the
New York Times.
Since the United States began requiring licenses to export weapons to
Canada in April, licenses have been issued for 115,000 handguns, 25,000
rifles and 200 million rounds of ammunition, the newspaper said.
American officials said they did not know where the firearms end up and that is has caused them to suspend the sales. An official told the Times that it is extremely possible that the handguns are being smuggled back to the United States.
The number of handguns licensed to be sold to Canada since April is more than to any other country and 10 times greater than the combined total of those in the United Kingdom, France and Italy in all of 1998, the newspaper said.