Gun-Control Advocates Decry Army Weapons Giveaway

A provision of the defense budget that went into effect earlier this year requires the Pentagon to give away 373,000 old rifles from World War II and the Korean War, spurring protests from gun-control advocates who believe the government shouldn’t add to gun commerce.

The little-noticed measure was promoted by the National Rifle Assn. and the congressional delegation in Ohio, home to an annual marksmanship competition that will be financed by the sale of the venerable M-1 rifles and other aged guns with a resale value of about $100 million.

The heavy, nine-pound M-1s are unlikely to be used in street crimes such as drug killings, the program’s advocates say, because the main buyers have been and likely will continue to be gun collectors who must be trained in shooting rifles and pass a stringent background investigation.

But critics say the recent congressional action is in effect a subsidy to the NRA. It requires the Army to transfer control over the rifles for free to a new nonprofit corporation. The corporation will sell them to benefit marksmanship programs and the yearly target tournament in Camp Perry, Ohio, which is managed by the NRA.

The old Army-administered program also co-sponsored the annual Ohio tournament with the NRA, and over the years the NRA used its close relationship with the project to market itself, critics of the group said.

Congress’ action marked the death of the Army-administered program, called the Civilian Marksmanship Program, which critics called one of the U.S. government’s oddest pork-barrel projects. The Pentagon ran it for decades but has sought to disentangle itself in recent years.

The program harkens to 1903, just after the Spanish-American War. U.S. military officials were upset to learn farm boys conscripted for that conflict were not the rustics of romantic American novels who could nail a jack rabbit from 200 yards--in fact, they couldn’t hit a barn. Congress established the project, supported by U.S. military guns and money, to promote sharpshooting in future wars.

“The gift of millions of dollars worth of weapons and ammunition is terrible public policy,” said Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) in a column in USA Today. “In fact, it’s outrageous. The government must work to stem the rising tide of gun violence in this country, not aid and abet it.”

“This program historically has been a federal subsidy to the NRA’s marketing,” said Josh Sugarman, a gun-control activist and author of a 1992 book critical of the NRA. Congress’ latest action, he added, is “a new funding mechanism” that also helps the NRA.

The great majority of the gun clubs that take part in the marksmanship program are affiliated with the NRA, he said. For decades, in fact, the guns’ buyers had to prove to the Army they were NRA members--until a federal judge stopped the requirement in 1979.

Promoters of the 93-year-old program say it’s no more sinister than the Boy Scouts, the Future Farmers of America and other youth groups that have taken part in its marksmanship training. The M-1s that are sold are not used in crimes, they said, because the strict background probes of the guns’ potential buyers cull out criminals. They also point out nine of the 10 members of the 1992 Olympic shooting team learned marksmanship in the program.

“Any link opponents try to draw between this program and urban violence is comparable to linking Olympic boxing competition with hoodlum street fighting,” said Rep. Paul E. Gillmor (R-Ohio), who sponsored the new measure and whose district draws 7,000 visitors and $10 million in revenue during the summertime rifle competition.

Gillmor added that it would cost the military $500,000 to destroy the guns; the cost is nothing if it gives them away.

Almost all the guns the Army is to give away are M-1s, the bolt-action rifle lugged by GIs onto the beaches at D-day and Guadalcanal. Replaced in 1958 by the M-14 as standard infantry issue and later by today’s M-16, the M-1 is prized by collectors and war buffs, especially the pristine guns sold in their original boxes by the Army.

Last year the Army charged $310 each for the M-1s stored at its Anniston Army Depot in Alabama, an increase from its recent price of $250. In any case, those are discounts, because M-1s usually sell for $400 to $500. In recent years, the program sold a maximum of 6,000 guns a year.