www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33080

300,000 M-14s destined for trash pile

Petition calls on Congress instead to sell guns to help pay for Iraq war

Posted: June 15, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

A petition drive is underway to convince lawmakers to "civilianize" hundreds of thousands of M-14 military battle rifles so they can be legally sold by the government to the general public as a way to pay for the Iraq war.

According to the online petition, "there is a strong demand for an M-14 DCM [Director of Civilian Marksmanship] program, which will curb government waste by providing up to $300-600 million [for] deficit reduction."


M-14

"With uncertainty of the price tag of the current war, this will help pay for freedoms we enjoy in this country," says the petition. "With the looming war deficit, our government should not throw away hundreds of millions of dollars by destroying M-14 rifles - some of which are brand new."

The petition, which is being spearheaded by Robert A. Yoder, says as many as 300,000 rifles could wind up in the scrap heap without the government getting any return on its investment.

The DCM program to save the M-14s could work like a similar program involving another venerable military workhorse, the M-1 (Garand) and M-1 carbine series of military rifles.


M1 Garand

The DCM sold those through the Civilian Marksmanship Program, a course that promotes firearms safety training and rifle practice for all qualified U.S. citizens with special emphasis on youth.

The Civilian Marksmanship Program also offers for sale AR-15-type match rifles, M1917 Enfields, M1903 bolt-action rifles (a former U.S. military weapon) and .22-caliber target rifles at subsidized rates.


M1903 bolt-action rifle

"The U.S. Rifle, 7.62 mm, M-14 was the first rifle the U. S. fielded that improved upon the highly regarded U. S. Rifle, Caliber.30, M1 (Garand) and attempted to give U. S. Forces a NATO-standardized weapon," says the online petition. "The M-14 came into active service around 1957 and remained the standard infantry weapon until the official adoption of the M-16 rifle in the late 1960s.

"Like its predecessor, the M-14 is now relegated to ship's arms rooms, ROTC detachments, storage bins in government arsenals and, of late, the demilitarized scrap pile," says the petition.

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Well selling M14s on the DCM market would pretty much kill ATFE's opinion of deactivated machineguns not still being machineguns.
They are taking parts kits away because the receivers are not chopped up enough. So no way they are going to sell these.

If you don't destroy surplus US rifles how are companies like Springfield Armory gonna make a living selling new rifles? How many jobs will be lost?

How many jobs would be lost?

How many would be created. This would make the M14 market HUGE! These guns arent exactly new and the need for replacement parts and refinishing/rebuilding would explode!!

Personally i dont give a rat's ass about Springfield's over priced Guns, But having the DCM sell off these Guns to American Tax payers who originally Paid For these Guns ,would force Companies like Springfield to lower thier prices through competition with DCM prices.

 Technically, since the trigger group does NOT provide the automatic function, the automatic connecting rod and switch and the reciever do..destroying that component leaves you with parts only since the "firearm" has been destroyed.  A good company could provide forged, CNC milled or barstock milled receivers at a decent price and the CMP could reassemble the parts kits as M1A type rifles.  OR the CMP could fill the connecting rod groove,  fully weld the selector to the weapon, grind down and record the destroyed number then apply a new serial number then re-heat treat the reciever and assmble an M1A type weapon.  There has to be a way to do this in conjunction with the ATFE so that qualtiy rifles can be turned out at a semblance of a profit for those guns instead of putting them in the scrap heap.

repeal all the bs illegal laws, sell back to the people.


[url]http://www.firearmslawcenter.org/content/Federallawsummary.asp[/url]

I'll take two please...

Hell, just cut up the receivers and sell the parts kits to civilians/Springfield Armory/etc.

MHO
Alex

I thought that only the first "few" M-14s were select fire.  That after a couple of years, the rest were semi-auto only.  The [url=http://www.hqmc.usmc.mil/factfile.nsf/0/6563e355ce34af538525627b0062a577?OpenDocument]USMC[/url] seems to think so as well....


Also, go to the DCM site and sign the [url=http://www.petitiononline.com/M14CMP03/petition-sign.html]Petition[/url]

Sell'em back hell they should be free the "People" already paid for them, now they want the "People" to pay to destory them! I'd buy one just to save it but what the hell is the government thinking throwing money away. Oh ya they do that everyday.

Glockdog

Airborne!!

i just went and signed up, my plan for next gun was gonna be a m-14 and now this would be a perfect oppertunity.

 Alex_F
That's where all the parts for M-14 came from....
If you look at a Springfield, you'll see Mil-spec parts, TRW, WIN, ETC.....

All M14s had selctive-fire innards and could sport either a selector switch or a semi-only lock. If I remember right, in the Army it was up to a commanding officer at some level ( company? battalion? I'll bet someone here knows ) whether his rifles got switches or locks while in the MC they decided that all M14s would have the locks. Even there they had the exception of squad automatic rifles, which had to have the switch as well as the folding bipod.

The availability of good USGI parts for the M14 is dwindling every year.

At the very least, they could salvage the parts out of the M14s before torching the receivers.

Seriously, there's some good stuff that could be salvaged out of them M14s for custom smiths to use out there for the next several years as they build up or replace Springfield parts when a gun comes into their shop.

The local blacksmith had to go out of business some time too. Adapt or perish.

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT DUMPSTER THESE FINE RIFLES ARE GOING TO BE THROWN INTO.  HEHEHE