The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP), a federally chartered private nonprofit, recently announced that it had received “special authorization” to sell over 100,000 military-surplus M14 rifles to the public for the first time early next year. While the CMP has sold other surplus guns to civilians in the past, including semi-automatic M1 Garand rifles and M1911 pistols, the M14 sale is unique because these Cold-War-era weapons are select-fire machine guns capable of both semi-automatic and fully automatic operation.
Federal law generally prohibits civilians from owning machine guns manufactured after May 19, 1985. Civilians can possess those made before that date, but only if they meet the requirements established by the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934 and pass an enhanced background check, pay a $200 tax, and receive approval from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
The CMP says that the M14 rifles will be made “permanently and irreversibly semi-automatic” before being sold, but the sale raises several questions, including who authorized it and if it will lead to more U.S. military weapons, such as M16s and M4s, entering the civilian market in the future.
The “Legal Pathway” to M14 Sales
In an interview, CMP Chairman and CEO Jerry O’Keefe confirmed that the surplus M14 rifles “were originally serialized as fully automatic firearms.”1Civilian Marksmanship Program, “CMP Chairman and CEO Jerry O’Keefe Interview – August 2026,” YouTube, August 7, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgAlrgEduYA, at 1:11. This is important because, according to the ATF, the only way to remove a machine gun from the NFA’s requirements is to destroy its frame or receiver, the gun’s main building block.2ATF, National Firearms Act Handbook, https://www.atf.gov/media/25161/download, at 21. This is commonly known as the “once a machine gun, always a machine gun” rule.
Yet O’Keefe said the CMP “always felt that there was a legal pathway” to selling the M14s because of the organization’s unusual position under federal law.3“CMP Chairman and CEO Jerry O’Keefe Interview – August 2026,” YouTube, at 1:21. The CMP is not an ordinary gun dealer. According to O’Keefe, the organization’s federal charter provides it with “significant authorizations and exemptions that no other entity that sells firearms has.”4Ibid, at 1:38. O’Keefe added that the M14 sales were “all authorized under existing legislation and policy,” and “there was no law that needed to be changed.”5Ibid, at 1:45.
O’Keefe said the CMP walked its federal partners through every step of the M14 conversion process, including the required machining, and plans to track each rifle by serial number to document the exact point when it becomes “permanently semi-automatic.”6Ibid, at 2:50. But if gun forums are any indication, some customers may attempt to convert the M14s back into machine guns.
Unanswered Questions
While O’Keefe cited the organization’s federal charter as the legal basis for the sales, the CMP has not published any legal or technical analysis explaining why these converted M14 rifles can be sold despite their original machine gun configurations, nor has it publicly named which federal authorities were essential to approving the sales. Perhaps most importantly, the CMP has not said whether it will stop at M14s or try to sell other converted military rifles, including surplus M16s and M4s.
That concern is especially relevant as the Army begins replacing M4A1 carbines within its Close Combat Force. The Army awarded Sig Sauer a 10-year contract in 2022 for what became the M7 rifle and M250 automatic rifle, and in 2025 formally classified both as standard weapons, saying the M7 would replace the M4A1 in the Close Combat Force. In 2026, the Army also accepted its first XM8 carbines, another select-fire 6.8mm weapon that it says is set to replace M4A1s for those soldiers. M4A1 rifles could of course remain in service elsewhere, enter storage, or be disposed of through other channels. But the M14 approval means there is now an established example of the government allowing the CMP to convert former military machine guns and sell them in the civilian market.
M16s are already part of the CMP’s statutory framework, though not for civilian sales. Under federal law, the Army is required to reserve certain M16 rifles to support the CMP, but a separate statute governing CMP sales does not list M16s among the firearms the organization may sell to individuals. Still, the fact that M16s already sit within the broader Army-CMP relationship makes the unanswered questions regarding the limits of the M14 approval a matter of significant public interest, as it sets a new standard for converting former military machine guns.
Funding the CMP
The M14 sales are critical to the CMP’s financials. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Army transferred more than 700,000 surplus rifles and handguns to CMP between 1996 and 2019. The GAO found that surplus rifle sales were the CMP’s primary source of revenue from 2008 through 2017, generating nearly $197 million during that period. O’Keefe described the relationship between firearm sales and the CMP’s other activities more directly, saying there is a “synergy” between gun sales and the organization’s shooting competitions, training, education, and summer camps.7Ibid, at 7:33. Program fees, he said, “don’t come close” to covering the costs, making what he called “pipelines” of rifles important to sustaining CMP’s operations.8Ibid, at 8:02.
Those pipelines are continuing to grow. O’Keefe said he expects the Army to transfer between 2,000 and 3,000 surplus shotguns to the CMP, and the organization plans to loosen limits on M1911 pistol purchases beginning in 2027.9Ibid, at 5:58. For the M14s, the government is expected to retain some rifles for ceremonial and operational purposes but transfer the “overwhelming majority” to CMP, with the final number at “well over 100,000.”10Ibid, at 3:37. The CMP plans to price the rifles below $2,000 and allow eligible purchasers to buy two per year, although O’Keefe said the organization will continue to revisit that limit.
As another generation of military rifles begins to age out of frontline service, the CMP and the government have yet to explain how narrowly O’Keefe’s “legal pathway” is confined to the M14, or what, exactly, would prevent it from being used again.