The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a bill that has an amendment calling for the transfer of the U.S. Army’s surplus 1911 pistols to the Civilian Marksmanship Program—which would then sell them to the general public—has been sent to the desk of President Donald Trump for signature.
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First introduced back in June, H.R. 2810 is a $700 billion defense spending package that includes $634 billion earmarked for Pentagon operations and nearly $66 billion for wartime missions in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The measure is essentially a way for the military to pay for more troops, jets, ships and other weapons as it attempts to improve readiness, Military.com reports. To that end, the bill includes money for 90 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, 24 F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighters, three Littoral Combat Ships, as many as 28 Ground-Based Interceptors and more. Additionally, troops would get a 2.4 percent pay raise.
Tucked away in the NDAA is an amendment that compels the Secretary of the Army to transfer surplus 1911 handguns “designated as no longer actively issued for military service” to the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP). According to the language of the bill, the Army will transfer “not less than 8,000 surplus caliber .45 M1911/M1911A1 pistols” in Fiscal Year 2018, with a limit of 10,000 surplus 1911 pistols transferred per fiscal year.
Back in November 2015, President Obama signed the 2016 NDAA into law with language that approved the transfer of 10,000 of the Army’s 100,000 surplus 1911 pistols—sitting in storage at a taxpayer expense of about $200,000 per year—to the CMP every year. But no such transfers were ever made while Obama was in office.
With the the NDAA being sent to Trump’s desk, it looks like the CMP is about to get a whole bunch of surplus 1911 pistols—at least 80,000 according to Task & Purpose—courtesy of the United States Army.
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