Of course the CMP doesn't want to pay the asking price; they don't buy guns. They receive guns, safety check, process, and make them available for use through the CMP. That's why Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush JR. didn't want them from SK - SK wants to sell them. The USA does not buy back things it lends/leases to other countries. For example Greece returned their Garands and Carbines which we lent/leased to them; go to the CMP. You can buy M1s that were previously used by Greece. The CMP didn't pay for them; Greece gave them back. All previous administrations understood this process - they did not see why the USA should have to pay for its property on loan to SK, particularly when the precedent had been established in our dealings with other countries.
seriously, you have to make a conscious choice to be ignorant in light of the facts in this situation. Lots of folks are handily ignoring what the CMP does, handily ignoring the rationale behind the policies of the last 25 years. They like to say Obama is just doing what Bush did, why is that bad? He is not doing what Bush did at all. His stated rationale is fear of illicit use; its a matter of public record, delivered by his spokesman, with no mention of the policies of the previous 25 years. The CMP is not in the business of distributing firearms for illicit use, its in the charter - its a federal program for heaven's sake.
This situation is exactly what it appears to be - the white house is afraid to have 800K 50 year old weapons in the hands of law abiding citizens who purchased the firearm through the CMP.
The federal law that established the CMP authorizes it to sell surplus military .22 rimfire and .30 cal. rifles and ammunition to qualified U. S. citizens who are members of gun clubs affiliated with the CMP. All purchasers must provide proof of having received gun safety or marksmanship training and pass an FBI NICS check. The principal rifles sold through this program have been WWII era M1 Garand rifles and WWI era M1903 rifles. The law mandates that proceeds from these sales may be used only to support the Civilian Marksmanship Program. Each year since its establishment in 1996, the CMP has produced an excess of revenues over expenses to fund its firearm safety, marksmanship training and competition programs and an endowment that will support future programs.
Now SK is not willing to return the weapons per the lease; they want US to pay for them. And Obama was willing to do so, until he found out where those weapons would go. Had Obama followed through on his original thought, 800K firearms would have made their way to the CMP. A large percentage of those would be sold via the CMP, and the $ received would have gone to promote marksmanship in the US. Here's what they do:
http://www.odcmp.com/about_us.htm
