The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act has been approved and includes a provision to transfer the U.S. Army’s remaining stock of .45 ACP M1911A1 pistols to the Civilian Marksmanship Program.
President Obama signed the FY16 spending bill into law, which authorized the Army to send up to 10,000 of their estimated 100,000 surplus 1911s to the CMP during a one-year pilot program but none were transferred.
The amendment to the 2018 NDAA would speed up the transfer of military surplus World War II handguns to the public. The legislation, which provides details for $700 billion in defense spending, was approved in the Senate and now goes to President Trump for signature.
The NDAA bill instructs the Secretary of the Army to conduct a two-year pilot program to transfer “not less than 8,000 surplus caliber .45 M1911/M1911A1 pistols” in 2018 with no more than 10,000 transferred per fiscal year.
CMP is a federally chartered non-profit corporation tasked with promoting firearms safety training and rifle practice. It originated as the Office of the Director of Civilian Marksmanship in 1903 under orders from Congress to improve the country’s marksmanship skills to minimize training in case of war. Split off from the U.S. Army under the Clinton administration in 1996, it still conducts training courses and holds shooting competitions nationwide but draws its primary source of funding through the sale of surplus firearms to qualifying members of the public, which were donated to the organization by the Army.
TAKE ACTION TODAY
If you would like to see 1911 sales return to the CMP, please contact your U.S. Senators and Representative and urge them to keep the House language on this matter intact in the final bill they send to the president. You can contact Senators and Representative at 202-225-3121.
Photo courtesy of US Army
