Media Contact: Georgia Seltzer, (202) 822-8200 x104, gseltzer@vpc.org
Campaign Research Notes – August 21, 2026
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The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is, according to its website, a “national organization dedicated to training and educating U.S. citizens in responsible uses of firearms and airguns through gun safety training, marksmanship training and competitions.”
In July, the CMP announced that it will begin selling surplus M14 military rifles to the public by late 2026 or early 2027. The M14 was initially produced in 1958 and was the standard infantry rifle for the U.S. Army and Marines, including those deployed to Southeast Asia in the early years of the Vietnam War. Defense procurement of the M14 ended in 1964 when it was replaced by the M16.
Past sales of surplus weapons by the CMP were primarily M1 Garands, a semiautomatic rifle that fired from an eight-round clip which was first used by the U.S. Army in 1936, and 1911 pistols, a semiautomatic handgun first patented on February 14, 1911.
What makes the addition of M14s to the weapons sold by the CMP notable is that the M14, unlike the M1 rifle or 1911 pistol, is a fully automatic machine gun (expelling rounds as long as the trigger is depressed). The CMP notes that the M14s it plans to sell will be “modified to be permanently and irreversibly semi-automatic rifles,” that is, firing one shot per trigger pull.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the agency tasked with enforcing our nation’s federal gun laws, has historically had a policy informally known as “once a machine gun, always a machine gun.” As ATF notes in its National Firearms Act Handbook, “Machineguns are defined to include the receiver of a machinegun and the definition of silencer includes each component of a silencer. Therefore, to remove these weapons from the provisions of the NFA, the receiver of a machinegun or all the components of a silencer must be destroyed.”
So much for that.
Not surprisingly, the gun press and pro-gun message boards have reacted with glee to the CMP’s announcement. But their excitement is not limited to the prospect of paying nearly $2,000 for a nearly 70-year-old surplus rifle. As Guns.com noted, “This could open the door to applying the same logic to the millions of surplus 5.56 firearms (M16A1, A2, A4s, etc.) in military storage, provided Congress tweaks the organization’s charter to include that caliber….”
The U.S. civilian gun market once catered to hunters and target shooters, but is now dominated by pistols, rifles, and shotguns that were either originally designed for military use or utilize battle-born design features that increase their lethality. Surplus military machine guns sold back into the civilian market as modified semiautomatic weapons would be just the latest step down this dangerous path.
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The Violence Policy Center is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury. Follow the VPC on X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky.