Civilian Marksmanship Program
It's hard to believe that such a program ever existed and even harder to believe it still exists. I personally have not had contact with the CMP as a participant but was the beneficiary of the program. My father bought a 1903a3 rifle that had been sporterized by the program and it has been my main hunting rifle ever since. I have long been curious about this program and it is worthwhile to explore. It is also how I came upon the books of Townsend Whelen.
There was a period in the late 1800s following the Spanish American War where a lot of development of rifle technology was changing very rapidly. The Springfield 1988 had been surpassed by the Krag–Jørgensen 1988 and eventually, that led to the M1903 30-03 model. In all these transitions military officers, outdoorsman, and gunsmiths began to notice that young men of the day were struggling to be accurate and fast with their new more advanced weapons. (There whole books about this period and I am ill-equipped to share the whole story).
This concern became an official program to ensure that the citizenry would be ready to defend itself and to build the character of young men. Colonel Whelen and President Teddy Roosevelt were vocal advocates of this kind of civilian training.
“Unless a man has considerable skill with and reliance in his weapon, he will not remain cool in the presence of dangerous game close by.”
The Office of the Director of Civilian Marksmanship was created by the U.S. Congress as part of the 1903 War Department Appropriations Act to modernize the American military. The stated goal was to provide civilians an opportunity to learn and practice marksmanship skills so they would be skilled marksmen if later called on to serve. This was first available to young men but later and now both young men and women can participate. One of the benefits of this program was that decommissioned military rifles were surplussed and sold for fair prices, making back some of the money the government invested in them and ensuring that anyone who wanted to learn could. The CMP has sold hundreds of thousands of rifles that have returned from Europe at prices that allowed for people to have access. Beyond training and selling weapons the CMP hosts competitions and education events for youth and adults alike.
The CMP eventually was looked at for cost cutting in the 1990's as a part of possible reductions in government spending and the GAO found the the CMP while a excellent source of good will had not yielded more ready soldiers in the decade leading up to 1996. Check out the report here. While the politics of the day made it sound like the CMP losing funding was anti-gun or perhaps anti-military, the world that the CMP was designed for had changed. So the organization was set up as a independent nonprofit and is still supported by the NRA and its sales of surplus shooting supplies.
While I never had access to a CMP training center or club, I did benefit from the program. Beyond my 1903a3, I learned a lot from books and shooting journals available from the CMP. Now even easier to get from the CMP online store. There continue to be auctions and sales of M1 Garand as well as .22 training rifles. Other Auctions are more rare for weapons like the 88 Krag or 1903 but they do come up from time to time. These are excellent rifles if you are looking to learn how to shoot. There have been rumored that 89,000 M1s are set to comeback from the Philippines where they were on loan. The US Military also has a large stockpile of WWII era 1911 side arms that due for sale; pending a secretary of the army to approve the sale.
I highly recommend that if you can support this program through purchases or through the club system, you will be keeping a legacy alive that was both an important heritage but also one way to keep gun ownership free and responsible.