“Democrats’ Attack on Civilian Marksmanship Expansion Plays on Fears with Lies,” this correspondent’s Friday column in Firearms News reports. “Left Wingers in Congress Equate Marksmanship Training with Gang Banging.”

Bottom line, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to  allocate additional surplus military weapons from the department of the Navy and the Department of the Air Force to the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP). That will help the program advance its mission to “Promote excellence in marksmanship and firearms safety through nationwide youth programs, competitions, and partnerships with proceeds from the restoration and sale of historic American firearms in a secure and accountable process.”

Enter Democrat prohibition extremist Maxwell Frost, who never saw a gun he didn’t want to ban. His very statement that “This amendment would make our country more dangerous by adding another responsibility and priority to the program to not just train people to but to essentially become an arms dealer, putting more weapons on the streets of this country,” proved he didn’t have the slightest idea of what he was talking about. Add to that his flat-out lie that “my Republican colleagues are wanting to make it even easier to dodge the rules” is debunked by what it takes to obtain a surplus firearm through the CMP (the column details what I had to go through to get my M1 Garand in 1995 and then lists requirements to obtain one today).

Writing it triggered a memory from 15 years ago of a series of articles I wrote, beginning with one from 2010 that asked,  “Why is Obama administration blocking import of surplus rifles?” (Note: No longer available on original site. Internet Archive link may load slowly.)

South Korea had hundreds of thousands of aging M1 Garand and carbine rifles provided to them during the Cold War that they wanted to sell back to us. Not only would it have saved their government storage costs, but it would also have boosted their defense budget, further indirectly benefiting American taxpayers who foot the bill for our own U.S. Forces Korea.

So why did Democrats, always quick to push phony gun “buybacks” where they never owned the guns in the first place, put the kibosh on a real one?

“The problems the U.S. government cited were somewhat ambiguous, said an official at the Ministry of National Defense on condition of anonymity.”

In other words, the last thing they wanted was more armed American citizens.

Here’s where things get hinky. It was blocked by the State Department under Hillary Clinton. Try finding a signed State Department order or policy reversal. The ambiguity cited was her statement, reported in the press at the time, that the rifles “could potentially be exploited by individuals seeking firearms for illicit purposes.”

You didn’t think Maxwell Smar…uh…Frost was smart enough to come up with such unmitigated horse…uh…codswallop on his own, did you? That’s the thing about “progressives”—if it weren’t for old, proven failed ideas, they’d have no “new” ones to offer.

Hillary’s say-so was followed by a 2013 executive action from Obama offering the same phony “rationale”:

“Today, the Administration is announcing a new policy of denying requests to bring military-grade firearms back into the United States to private entities, with only a few exceptions such as for museums.  This new policy will help keep military-grade firearms off our streets.”

Legislative action to override the ban failed (repeated attempts by Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) to pass the Collectible Firearms Protection Act) were introduced but never advanced enough to receive a vote). It’s doubtful a renewed effort would go anywhere in today’s closely divided Congress, and who knows what things will look like after the midterms?

But the ban was by presidential order, not by law, not cast in stone. Enter Donald Trump’s first term…

“Good news for fans of vintage military rifles,” AccurateShooter.com reported in 2018.  “The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) has received roughly 99,000 M1 Garand rifles from the Philippines and Turkey. These former U.S. Allies had received the rifles from the USA via long-term loans decades ago. Now they are finally coming home.”

As for surplus military arms in South Korea? Per an internet search, evidently, they’re still there. The latest report this correspondent found was a 2021 S.W.A.T. Magazine article titled “SOUTH KOREA’S M1 GARANDS – Will They Ever Return?”

This is something President Trump could fix today, without waiting on a derelict Congress that will continue to do the wrong thing on guns as long as Democrats have enough votes to block the right thing. He could rescind the Obama executive action within hours of being informed it’s an issue with gun owners that will help galvanize their commitment to voting for his agenda and for the Republicans who support it.

But he won’t if columns like this and the Firearms News article are one-offs that never escape the echo chamber, and that he never sees. This – again – is where it would be immeasurably helpful if gun owners had advocacy representatives as members on the administration’s much-hyped “Second Amendment Task Force,” which, unfortunately and incomprehensibly excludes all but government careerists beholden to their bosses. That means if gun owners wish to gain the president’s ear on this, the groups that claim they already have it need to be the ones to bring this to him, tell him it’s an easy win, and remind him that their members are also “gun voters” and influencers.

I’d like to end this piece with a comment at The War on Guns blog from frequent comment poster DDS, sharing his memories of the CMP, and of the left’s chronic attempts to sabotage and end it.  Understand it’s not just this program they wish to eradicate, it’s our American heritage they’re bent on replacing with something alien and tyrannical, which is why they view the Second Amendment, and those who revere it, as threats to be lied about, disparaged, and erased.

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.