by Late last night, Mark Johnson, Chief Operating Officer of the Civilian Marksmanship Program, sent out an email with info on how the CMP was planning to handle sales of the approximately 10,000 1911s they will (or should) be receiving from the Department of the Army. As I’ve mentioned before, I hold a 03 Curios and Relics FFL. I responded immediately to Mr. Johnson questioning why 03 FFLs could not be the recipient of the firearm. I also posted his first draft to a mailing list for C&R FFLs.
You will note below the added verbiage saying that 03 FFLs cannot perform a NICS check on the recipient. In a note I received back from Mr. Johnson, he said, “An 03 FFL can’t perform the in person background check on the recipient end. BATF and the Army prefer the second background check and shipment to the 01 FFL.”
Pardoning me for being a little blunt but Mr. Johnson’s response is utter bullshit. There is no need for a 03 FFL to perform a NICS check on themselves. They are LICENSED by the freaking BATFE to begin with. Even the original NICS check run by the CMP is superfluous. If this surplus 1911 was coming from anywhere else but the CMP, the seller would, after the receipt of a signed copy of my C&R FFL, ship that pistol directly to my door.
Frankly, there is only one of these 1911s I want. It has the serial number 1910270 and was issued to my Dad on his second tour of duty in South Vietnam.
If you hold a 03 FFL and would like to send a note to Mr. Johnson, his email is coo@thecmp.org
Below is how the CMP plans to conduct these sales:
To all CMP constituents:The CMP Board of Directors has discussed at length how the sales of
1911s would be handled, if the CMP were to ever receive them from the
United States Army.Some preliminary decisions further clarified:
- Decisions concerning the grade and pricing of the 1911s will not
be made until inspection has occurred of a substantial quantity which
will take an estimated 150 days post receipt.- All laws pertaining to the sale of 1911s by CMP will be strictly obeyed.
- Potential
purchasers will have to provide to CMP a new set of documents
exhibiting: 1) proof of U.S. Citizenship, 2) proof of membership in a
CMP affiliated club, 3) proof of participation in a marksmanship
activity, 4) a new form 2A with notary, 5) a signed copy of the 01
Federal Firearms License in which the 1911 will be transferred to.- A
NICS background check will be performed by CMP on the customer to
assure the customer is eligible to purchase prior to shipment to the FFL
licensed dealer. The customer must receive a “proceed” from NICS prior
to shipment of the pistol to the FFL licensed dealer.- The
CMP customer will be required to complete a form 4473 in person at the
FFL dealers place of business, successfully passing a NICS check
performed by the FFL holder, before the pistol can be transferred. This
is a second NICS check performed on the customer.- Qualified CMP customer will only be allowed to purchase one 1911 per calendar year.
- No 1911s available in the CMP stores, or on line, only mail order sales.
- CMP will set the date in which it will accept orders for the 1911s. The date will be posted to the world.
- Orders will only be accepted via mail order delivery.
- Orders will only be accepted post marked on the date or after, no early orders.
- Once CMP receives 10,000 orders, customer names will be loaded into the Random Number Generator.
- The Random Number Generator will provide a list of names in sequence order through a random picking process to CMP.
- Customers will be contacted in the sequence provided by the Random Number Generator.
- When
the customer is contacted a list of 1911 grades and pricing options
that are available will be offered for selection of one.- As CMP proceeds down the sequenced list less grade and pricing options will be available. Again, this done completely random.
Note: 1911 type pistols purchased from CMP cannot
be transferred to 03 FFL (curio and relic) license. BATF and the United
States Army prefer the second background check be performed by a “store
front” FFL dealer. Each customer purchasing a 1911 type pistol from
CMP will be subjected to two NICS background checks, one performed by
CMP and the other performed by the FFL dealer the pistol is being
shipped to.Mark JohnsonChief Operating OfficerCivilian Marksmanship Program
