Disneyland for Shooters…
I recently had the opportunity to visit the immaculate ranges used by the Civilian Marksmanship Program to support public firearms training.
The CMP is a federally-chartered non-profit corporation tasked with promoting firearms safety training and target practice. It originated as the Office of the Director of Civilian Marksmanship in 1903 under orders from Congress to improve the country’s marksmanship skills to minimize training in case of war.
Split off from the U.S. Army under the Clinton-administration in 1996, it still conducts training courses and holds shooting competitions and clinics nationwide but draws its primary source of funding through the sale of surplus firearms to qualifying members of the public which were donated to the organization by the Army.
With an eye to see just what all those M1 Garand sales have helped pay for, I visited the CMP’s Alabama operations to get a better idea about what they offer the public:
How about a covered 54-positon 600-yard range with targets at 100-200-600, all electronically scored with a monitor at your station…
15 different clays stands on golf-course quality grounds..
Olympic-quality 10m airgun ranges set up for 80 competitors at a time– also with electronic targets
It’s almost like they are into civilian marksmanship training or something…
