CMP To Start Selling Surplus Shotguns?

"SEC. 1062. MODIFICATIONS TO AUTHORITY FOR TRANSFER AND SALE OF CERTAIN SURPLUS FIREARMS, AMMUNITION, AND PARTS." is an incredibly dry and bureaucratic title. Still, it may represent some exciting news for American gun collectors. Keep reading for all the details.

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The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is the annual bill that provides funding for the U.S. military. It is a convoluted and bureaucratic process. If you find legislative procedure interesting, Congress has a good summary of the NDAA process here.

But the current NDAA has a very interesting provision buried inside. Section 1062 of the “ Text of House Amendment to S. 1071” authorizes the Army, Navy, and Air Force to make a one-time transfer of shotguns determined to be surplus to the CMP for resale. Yes, that’s right, stockpiles of vintage military scatterguns could be available.

The US armed forces have used all kinds of interesting shotguns through the years. From World War 1 trench guns like the Winchester M1897, to the guns used to train aerial gunners in World War 2 (check out this video at about 7:55 to see how shooting clay pigeons played a role in the war effort - they did the same thing during WW1 too), to the tunnels and jungles of Vietnam, shotguns have long been a staple of American armories.

Before you get your hopes up for an MCS or C-More M26, as I did, the bill language specifically does not include those guns. The bill text states, "The Secretary may not transfer pursuant to paragraph (3) any shotgun that is a modular ancillary addition to a service rifle, or meets the definition of a ‘short barreled shotgun’ as that term is defined in section 921(a)(6) of title 18, United States Code." So military surplus shotguns with barrels under 18 inches or shotguns designed for "Masterkey" applications cannot be transferred to CMP.

The bill language is also specific to pump-action shotguns, so no surplus Benelli M4 shotguns will be coming out of USMC inventory. Dang. This also means that any over/under sporting guns in military stocks would not be surplusable either. But what it could refer to is classic pump-action shotguns such as the Mossberg M500 or M590, perhaps some Remington Model 870s, or maybe some deep storage Ithaca 37s? Time will tell.

The NDAA has not passed as of writing but passage seems likely. We will stay tuned to see if it passes, and if this provision is included in the final version. And if it does, there will probably be some TFB articles where we talk about the surplus shotguns we all bought.