Interesting Bill: Turn over old surplus 1911's to CMP

[mgmorden]

http://www.wvtm13.com/news/Rogers-proposes-CMP-take-control-of-old-Army-pistols/32720294

Not sure if it'll ever make it to a vote, but this is interesting. Apparently there are some ~92,000 1911A1's still in the military's possession that they have no use for. This bill would seek to have those transferred to the CMP for sale to the public, much like they currently do with rifles.

The guy proposing it sounds hopeful. I'll reserve my enthusiasm for now but if it went through it'd be very welcomed. I'd certainly love to have an actual US military surplus 1911.

 

[kBob]

Not holding my breath but keeping my fingers crossed.

Probably won't make modern 1911-ish manufacturers happy, perhaps make them suggest to their congress critters that they might notice how he votes.

-kBob

 

[joem1945]

Prob won't happen. Manufactures won't like it and antis will blow a gasket. We can hope!

 

[Captains1911]

I will certainly stay optimistic and hopeful.

 

[HOOfan_1]

I can't imagine any manufacturers in this country would even bat an eyelash. They might compete against the likes of Armscor and Taurus and Tisas, but I can't imagine a person who wanted to buy a new Colt, S&W, SIG, Dan Wesson etc. would consider a surplus 1911 to be an alternative.

 

[CNobbe]

I gotta agree, I'd imagine these guns have been through a lot and probably aren't in the greatest of shape.

That said, I'd still want one.

 

[Tcruse]

I can't imagine any manufacturers in this country would even bat an eyelash. They might compete against the likes of Armscor and Taurus and Tisas, but I can't imagine a person who wanted to buy a new Colt, S&W, SIG, Dan Wesson etc. would consider a surplus 1911 to be an alternative.

In fact, it may very well cause in increase in business for much of the gun industry. The people that purchase these guns would likely want to replace damaged parts and upgrade portions of the guns.

 

[dogmush]

In fact, it may very well cause in increase in business for much of the gun industry. The people that purchase these guns would likely want to replace damaged parts and upgrade portions of the guns.

In addition, I suspect there would be a lot of using them as a base for full on custom guns. Work for the custom 'smiths.

 

[Gun Master]

1191's From CMP ?

Don't give up hope. Elected officials should respond to their constituents.
I don't believe it would help me personally since I don't belong to the CMP required target club.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Looking solely at the math - nope!

If they garnered $200,000 in the initial sale saying the first line bidder paid $200 ea... you know by the time bureaucrats got done with the program (they would of course "re-invent the wheel) it'd end up costing the taxpayers - which is to say foreign lenders - many, many times that to implement.

It would likely cost us a million (millions of?) dollars to "sell" the surplus when the numbers are so low. Even if the initial sale was more market reflective - I'm quite certain in the end it would be too expensive for the government to sell them.

Then - there's the first round of law suits once one was involved deliberately or accidentally in a shooting especially - heaven forbid - should a child be involved.

Todd.

 

[Bongo Boy]

The only active duty military 1911 I've ever seen was "Property of the US Navy" and I don't think it had ever been fired. It's possible...I said possible...there are some top-grade 1911s out there. If I had to guess I'd say maybe more in excellent condition than in beat-to-hell condition.

Bless those that get on board with this. There will likely be a bunch who suggest torching them all. "More guns isn't the answer" you know...that crowd.

 

[Japle]

In the mid-1970s, I was a Missile Combat Crew Commander in the Titan ICBM system at Davis-Montham AFB outside Tucson. We used a bunch of Colt and S&W 2” and 4” .38 revolvers in the Launch Control Centers.
One day, they announced that they were pulling all those 2” guns and all the Colts and replacing them with S&W M-15s. I did some checking and found out that those wonderful old Colt Official Police, Detective Special and the various models of 2” Smiths were to be destroyed.
I started a campaign to save them, going so far as to bring Barry Goldwater into it.

I was wasting my time. Senator Goldwater told me that there was zero chance that the Federal legislature would agree to sell handguns to the public, even to active duty USAF members. The guns were torched.

Things have changed a lot since then, but I’m not optimistic about Congressman Rogers and the CMP’s chances.

 

[Capstick1]

Regarding the military issue 1911's I'd kind of be wary. I once read somewhere that when the army used to clean these guns all the guns would be taken apart at the same time and someone would clean a pile of slides and another would clean a pile of barrels etc. When these guns were put back together again they probably didn't use the original matching parts and the fit and finish was probably looser than a 45 year old hooker. Whoever buys these mil surplus 1911's is probably going to have to take it to a gunsmith to get some decent accuracy out of them.

 

[GRIZ22]

It would require a change in CMP's charter which now says rifles only.

 

[Capt. Obvious]

I bet if it does pass, we'll see them with a starting price of at least $800. Then, the story tellers will begin making up stories to inevitably increase the price.

 

[mgmorden]

It would require a change in CMP's charter which now says rifles only.

Probably doable. The original source where I found this article was CMP's own Facebook page, so at least someone over there is interested in it.

 

[ritepath]

This would be great, I'm not very interested in 1911's, but I would love a piece of military history. It would be great to have a shootable piece of American firearm history.

A friend of mine has an unmolested 1911 that was made in 1918 and carried by his uncle.

 

[Hacker15E]

There could be some unintended negative consequences if the CMP charter gets out on the floor of Congress for debate and change.

Not sure this is a boat we want rocked at this point for the hope of a handful of 1911s.

 

[19-3Ben]

I'm not sure, but I think i remember that pre WW2 guns were not heat treated to modern standard. I wonder which era this pile of guns is from.

If they turned out to be a couple hundred bucks a piece, I think I'd HAVE to buy one. It would be un-American not to. If getting up over the $350 range, then it starts to compete with brand new import 1911s like the Girsan, RIA, Metro, etc...

 

[Thermactor]

Pleeeeease Oh Please Please Please!

 

[Thermactor]

There could be some unintended negative consequences if the CMP charter gets out on the floor of Congress for debate and change.

Not sure this is a boat we want rocked at this point for the hope of a handful of 1911s.

I'm not too sure about that. Do you really think that an incredibly overpriced rifle ($800 for a service-grade M1 Garand) being sent to your door after going through all kinds of rigmarole is a politically contentious thing?

 

[HKGuns]

Do you really think that an incredibly overpriced rifle ($800 for a service-grade M1 Garand) being sent to your door after going through all kinds of rigmarole is a politically contentious thing?

Pretty much couldn't be more wrong on any of your points. But thanks for sharing your misinformation.

 

[Thermactor]

Pretty much couldn't be more wrong on any of your points. But thanks for sharing your misinformation.

Ok, let me rephrase that. Do you think that the CMP is politically contentious? I didn't think so. They currently sell overpriced historical antiques like M1 Garand rifles to people with more money than sense. There should not be any political pushback from them offering 1911s. I would only hope that the 1911s are reasonably priced, because their tired, cracked, pitted and rusty Garands are marked up 5 times what they're really worth. If they could offer the 1911s at, say, $350 per, that would be excellent. But it would be a shame if they followed their M1 Garand pricing model with the 1911s and then offered them for sale at, say, $1500 each.

 

[Jim NE]

Oh...the Civilian Marksmanship Program. I thought it was the Canadian Mounted Police.

 

[1911 guy]

I'd like to see it happen. Limit the political shenanigans, set a reasonable price and it wouldn't cost the taxpayers a dime.

And since when are we overly concerned with what the anti-gunners think? Know their argument and understand their strategy, yes. Acquiesce to their will, no. In fact, we need to be on the offense. Defensive posture is losing posture.