I don't wish to come across as "holier than thou".

I purchased my first M1 Garand back when the DCM required that you had to fire at least 60 rounds in competition (proof required), pay $128, and limited to one purchase per lifetime. If that were the case today, what type of exchange would we be seeing here now? I was also able to get a replacement '03A3 barrel for $0.98, brand new in the cosmoline wrap.

Times change, and so do prices. When the CMP replaced the DCM, it was understood that the CMP was to be totally self sufficient. All financial support ties to the Department of the Army were severed. By Congressional edict, any arms disposed by the Army was to be thru the CMP. I don't know how many people that the CMP employs, but I do know that they operate at least two facilities: CMP North at Camp Perry (which is the HQ and the Northern store), and the CMP facility at Anniston (where incoming arms are inspected and repaired, and graded). I don't know if the new range complex is at Anniston or not, so it could be a third facility.

What I do know, is that the sale of each and every arm sold by CMP is the operating income, plain and simple! As the supplies of arms, ammunition, parts, shooting supplies, and souvenirs dwindles, the prices have to go up. Without the sale of arms and such by the CMP, there is NOT any semblance of a Civilian Marksmanship Program. Today, the existence of the CMP is at the mercy of the American gun owner, unlike the DCM, whose existence was subject to the whims of Congress!

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Judge control not gun control!