M1 Semi-Auto Rifle Auctions begin in Korea, 84,417 Firearms inventory at stake

The Ministry of National Defense has started an online auction for 84,417 M1 Garand rifles used in the 1950-1953 Korean War, ministry officials said Tuesday. The ministry is trying to find a pair of Korean and American brokers for the deal that will market the old rifles, bought by the ministry at the end of the war, to U.S. veterans. Each rifle can fetch around $500, pushing the total price to more than $40 million. The ministry plans to have the proceeds directly go to Daewoo Precision to pay for K-2 rifles, each of which is priced at $727.   “All of them are expected to be shipped to the United States for sale,” ...“Though the United States has agreed to allow the importation of the M1 Garand rifles from Seoul, there is a slight possibility that it may reverse its earlier decision if there is a change in gun-control laws or a changed political situation,” an official said... The Korea Times reported on Jan. 19 about the Barack Obama administration’s reversal of its 2010 decision to block the import of the wartime rifles... the M1 rifle has tremendous historical value in the United States as it not only represents American ingenuity in that it outclassed many of its adversaries when it first entered service...The M1 was used by U.S. troops in World War II, the Korean War and in the early days of the Vietnamese conflict...
----
Full story is at Korea Times
----
Gun hater in Chief and his bully-boy minions held hands with Gun-Hater Hilary on this issue of blocking these historical money-makers as a "danger" simply because they are "semi-automatic". The next fight on this issue will be with the remaining stocks of surplus M1 Carbines and M1911A1 Govt. Model .45 Pistols the Koreans still have stored. Expect the US Gun haters to try and block these using the old & tired scare tactics they always drag our in these cases...(S9)