The Commerce Department is halting exports of most US-made firearms for 90 days and reviewing its support of the country’s biggest gun trade show to ensure such backing “does not undermine US policy interests” — steps that could slow two decades of growth of gun sales abroad.
The department late Friday announced the pause in approval of new export licenses for the commercial sale of semiautomatic and non-automatic firearms around the world. The freeze doesn’t apply to Israel, Ukraine and about 40 other countries that are part of an export-control agreement. But it does cover some of the biggest markets ...