I get your point, but with 50-60k being up for lottery @ $1,000+ , that’s $60 million dollars.
Someone’s getting rich from this organization, do what you want people, but these guns should be redistributed to the people at minimum or no cost. Every American citizen should have a right or change to these guns regardless of their financial situations.
Except for the M1911 sales, I actually am not too familiar with the CMP. But as I was looking for the enabling legislation to see what the direction of the DLA=>CMP transfers was and potentially where it is going, I came across a report done by the Rand Corporation
An Evaluation of the Corporation for the Promotion of Rifle Practice and Firearms Safety | RAND and the Government Accountability Office. It was a requirement of the enabling legislation to sell surplus 1911's with the trial balloon of the first 8,000 pistols transferred in FY2018. It shows generally shows the finances of the CMP the endowment/profits from the sales of military weapons transferred. The CMP is coming to the end of surplus rifles, and will run out of pistols at some point in the not too distant future. After that they will need to sustain their operations with return on investments from the profits on sales of the surplus weapons and other revenues from affiliated organizations.
The CMP oversight is chartered by Congress. Also, given the multiple reports and audits required for surplus sales, with that scrutiny and oversight, I don't think it would be possible for someone at the CMP to get unjustly rich off this program. I may be naive, but that's my opinion.
I also believe the CMP is mandated to sell the surplus weapons at market value (I don't have a direct document that I've read, just hearsay from reading posts on forums). This is somewhat subjective as to the value, as we all know. Some people think $1,000 is too much others think it's a bargain. I think the CMP was definitely erring on the low range of market value that they can justify.
The original purpose of the DCM, which was created by Congress and which became the CMP, was to provide civilians an opportunity to learn and practice marksmanship skills should they later be called on to serve in the U.S. Military. They are a non profit, but obviously need revenue to operate. The CMP has an endowment of about $188 million as of 2018, the primary source of which is sale of surplus firearms. They use the return on investment to help sustain their operations according to their goals. The report shows their operating costs and revenues. They need the revenue and the endowment to remain viable with their current mandate and programs. If the CMP was mandated to give away the guns away at minimum cost or no cost, the CMP would not be able to operate in the future without reducing their programming. The DCM got funding directly from Congress. The CMP funding, by design of Congress, came mostly from the sales of surplus weapons.
Starts at Chapter 6 for the 1911s.
