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On orders from the then Bush administration, they "discovered" the error of their ways, reclassifying the same semiautomatic rifles as not being suitable for or adaptable to sporting purposes.
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It's a chicken/egg question. William Bennett, who was drug czar at the time, pressured President Bush to do something about semiautomatic rifles following the Stockton shooting. Directly after, the ATF
issued a report [pdf] in which they interpreted 925(d) as such:
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Moreover, there is legislative history which indicates that Congress intended the standard to allow the importation of traditional sporting rifles, while excluding military-type rifles. The Senate Report on the Gun Control Act observed that the importation standards “. . . are designed and intended to provide for the importation of quality made, sporting firearms, including . . . rifles such as those manufactured and imported by Browning and other such manufacturers and importers of firearms.”
An explanation of the effect of this section by one of the sponsors of the bill specifically stated that military firearms would not meet the “sporting purposes” test for importation. The mere fact that a military firearm may be used in a sporting event does not make it importable as a sporting firearm.
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There wasn't an executive order because they didn't need one. The President simply stayed out of the way. To what extent he influenced that decision, I can't say, but there wasn't an EO.