Brian Tumulty

USA Today

WASHINGTON – About 90 House Democrats led by Rep. Eliot Engel of the Bronx recently wrote President Obama asking him to bar the importation of assault-style rifles.

The letter was sent Jan. 11, about a week after Obama’s most recent executive actions on guns. Those actions included guidance on which firearms sales are subject to a criminal background check because the seller is required to have a Federal Firearms License.

Obama also asked the Social Security Administration to issue a regulation allowing the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to obtain the names of people receiving disability benefits. The aim is to prevent people with mental health issues from owning guns. The president also requested that federal agencies research smart-gun technology.

The letter from congressional Democrats expresses “strong support’’ for Obama’s actions but asks that the administration return to “the strong enforcement of the ban on imports of military-style assault weapons.’’

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the letter. The administration also did not respond to a similar letter signed by a dozen Senate Democrats and 82 House Democrats in April 2014.

That letter was signed by New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, along with 15 of New York’s House lawmakers, including Reps. Louise Slaughter of Fairport, Nita Lowey of Harrison and Engel.

Engel initiated both letters. The letter also included 15 New York lawmakers.

Both letters make the same argument — that the president has broad authority under the 1968 Gun Control Act to impose a stricter ban on the importation of certain guns.

“The Gun Control Act prohibits the importation into the United States of any firearm that is not ‘generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes,’’’ the letter states. “The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has already said that this ban includes ‘semiautomatic assault rifles’ with ‘military configuration features.’’’

The administration’s current policy excludes only “specific parts and components,’’ the letter said.

President George H. W. Bush imposed a ban on military-style assault weapons after five children were killed and 30 teachers and students were wounded in 1989 at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California. The gunman, Patrick Purdy, used an imported AK-47 rifle.

The ban expired in 2004 during the presidency of Bush’s son, George W. Bush.

The imported assault-style firearms, according to the letter, “make up a major portion of weapons identified in criminal prosecutions in the United States, and nearly one in five weapons seized at crime scenes in Mexico are AK-47 variants trafficked into that country after being imported into the U.S.’’

A report released last July by the Violence Policy Center said the AK-47 variants being seized in Mexico are manufactured in places such as Romania and Bulgaria. According to the report, the ATF traced 73,684 guns that were recovered in Mexico as originating in the United States.

Brian Tumulty: btumulty@gannett.com; Twitter: @NYinDC