This is pretty old news. From the M14 board,
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Read the article with a critical eye and you'll find that this whole
campaign is half-baked. CMP is no longer a military program, it's a
corporation and it's profits stay in house to promote shooting sports.
I'm
not sure how the CMP acquires rifles, but I expect that they don't BUY
them
from the military, but rather receive obsolete equipment for
disposition.
So how does the money get to the government? It doesn't. So
discussions
about opening up a revenue stream are garbage. Additionally, the idea
of
the government passing M14's (no matter what their modifications) is
going
to enrage the Feinsteins and Schumers and they will put the measure
through
incredible hurdles before it can actually go through. So before the
thing
even passes, millions upon millions of dollars will have been spent to
legislate and litigate the program, test to ensure that modified rifles
cannot be quickly restored to full-auto capability, etc. Frankly, the
idea
of such a project returning much of any revenue to the Federal coffers
is
laughable.
I'd love to see surplus M14's released to civilian shooters rather than
wasted, but trying to justify it this way does NOT improve our (gun
owners)
credibility as responsible, intelligent, and honest people. This
proposal
is irresponsibly researched, poorly thought out, and intellectually
dishonest. In fact, it is blatantly political, and thus utterly
discountable.
Sorry to be so critical of this, but supporting garbage does us no good
as a
group.
Andrew Priestley
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Andrew is correct, this article is waaay out of date.
This "petition" originated about ten years ago, pre-CMP. Fred's would
send out the "campaign" with your shipping documents when you purchased
from them.
The CMP does not pay for their rifles pre se, but they do pay a hefty
"handling charge." The monies are used to support marksmanship of many
kinds, & gun ownership thereby.
Few M14s remain in inventory. Besides the destruction program initiated
by the Clinton administration, the Gov't has given tens of thousands of
M14s to our allies such as Lithuania and Kosovo. There is a looming
shortage of M14s for the new roles envisioned for 7.62-MM rifles, which
is why new 7.62-MM rifles will be under development.
Very best regards,
Walt Kuleck