The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is run by the US government in order to promote civilian marksmanship by organizing games and providing cheap World War II-era firearms. A batch of 87,310 South Korean M1 Garand rifles has been awaiting approval by the State Department to import into the US. The rifles in question have been in limbo for decades.

The US sold most of the M1s to the South Korean military to aid the South in the Korean War. Other M1s were left behind by our troops when they left the country. The M1 Garand is no longer adequate to fight today’s battles, so the South Korean government has been trying to sell them on the US market in order to pay for upgrades to their military weapons.

The import of the rifles was blocked by the Obama administration on the grounds they could be exploited by people looking to use them for “illicit purposes.”

The Korean Times is reporting that legislation passed by the US in 2012 cleared the rifles for import through third parties like CAI. The rifles were to be sold for as little as $220. The Obama administration, however, blocked the import before the rifles could make it to the US.

770,000 M1 Carbines are also not allowed to be imported from South Korea due to their ability to accept a high-capacity detachable magazine. The odd thing about that distinction is that the CMP has been selling those guns with those magazines directly to US citizens for decades without a Federal Firearms License. The 922(r) should not matter either since the guns were manufactured in the US, to begin with.

Update 27-4-2015, this appears to be a story from 2012 and the import has been blocked by the Obama administration. Sorry folks!