For decades, the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) has been one of the most effective ways to preserve America’s marksmanship tradition and put iconic surplus rifles, such as the M1 Garand, into the hands of citizens who will cherish them.
CMP proceeds fund youth programs, training, and competitions that ensure the next generation of Americans know how to handle a rifle safely and competently.
Naturally, that makes the CMP a target for the gun-control crowd.
Democrats vs. CMP: The Same Old Playbook
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) recently introduced an NDAA amendment to allow additional surplus weapons from the Navy and Air Force to be transferred to CMP. This would help fund their mission — youth training, competitions, and the restoration of historic firearms.
Enter Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), who responded with the kind of knee-jerk hysteria we’ve come to expect:
“This amendment would make our country more dangerous… putting more weapons on the streets of this country.”
What Frost either doesn’t know (or doesn’t care to know) is that buying a CMP rifle isn’t like ordering ammo off GunBroker. Buyers must meet strict eligibility requirements, undergo background checks, and follow a process that has been in place for decades.
The South Korean M1 Garands That Never Came Home
This fight over CMP surplus rifles isn’t new. Back in 2010, South Korea attempted to sell hundreds of thousands of aging M1 Garands and M1 Carbines, rifles that the U.S. had sent them during the Cold War, back to the U.S. This would have saved them storage costs and boosted their defense budget.
But the Obama State Department, led by Hillary Clinton, quietly killed the deal. Their excuse? The rifles “could potentially be exploited by individuals seeking firearms for illicit purposes.” No signed policy, no public debate, just a bureaucratic “no.”
Obama doubled down in 2013 with an executive action formally banning the reimportation of these rifles except for museums. Congress tried to override it with the Collectible Firearms Protection Act (thanks to Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-WY), but the bills never made it to a vote.
Trump Could Fix This — Today
Here’s the key point: this was never a law. It was executive policy. And what one president did with the stroke of a pen, another can undo the same way.
Trump’s first term already saw some progress; CMP received nearly 99,000 M1 Garands from the Philippines and Turkey in 2018. But South Korea’s M1 Garand rifles? Still sitting overseas.
All it would take is an order from the Oval Office to rescind Obama’s policy and greenlight their return. It’s a move that would:
- Bring a huge number of historic U.S. rifles back to American collectors and shooters.
- Infuriate the gun-control lobby.
- Fire up gun owners ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Gun Groups Need to Step Up
The real question is whether anyone in Trump’s circle is talking to him about this. The administration’s so-called “Second Amendment Task Force” is made up of government insiders — not gun owners.
If gun groups claim to have access to the former president, this is the moment to use it. Call for the reimportation order. Remind him that CMP sales don’t “put guns on the street,” they put them in the hands of law-abiding citizens — the same people who will show up to vote if they know their president is fighting for them.
Bottom Line
M1 Garands are more than collectible rifles — they’re a living link to America’s history. It’s time to bring the rest of them home.
Trump could make that happen in a matter of hours. But he won’t unless we keep the pressure on and make sure this issue breaks out of the gun-rights echo chamber and onto his desk.
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