More than 1 million rifles, handguns and shotguns were imported into the United States last year, according to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms - nearly a tenfold increase over the previous year.

The three Atlanta companies - Keng's Firearms Specialty, PTK International Inc. and Poly USA Inc. - are major importers or brokers of weapons and ammunition produced by companies run by the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

Da Keng, owner of Keng's Firearms Specialty, said the ban will severely hurt his company.

"That's probably 80 percent of our business," he said. Keng, who has an offic e in an industrial park in southwest Atlanta, is the local importer for China North Industries, also known as Norinco. While nominally separate from the People's Liberation Army, Norinco oversees China's defense industries.
