A couple people had expressed interest in this topic, and I have a bit of extra time for a couple days, so here goes:
Bona fides: I am a former infantry NCO and sniper, hunter, competitive shooter, reloader, hobby gunsmith, sometimes firearms trainer and currently work in a gun shop, mostly on the paperwork/compliance side. Back in the day, was a qualified expert with every standard small arm in the US inventory circa 2003 (M2, 4, 9, 16, 19, 249, 240B, 21, 24, 82 etc.), and today hang around the 75th percentile of USPSA classifications. I've shot Cap-and-Ball, Trap and Sporting Clays badly; Bullseye and PRS somewhat better and IDPA/USPSA/UML/Two-gun with some local success. Been active in the 2A community since the mid-90s, got my first instructor cert in high school, and have held a CPL for almost twenty years now.
I certainly don't claim to be an expert in every aspect of firearms, there's huge areas that escape my knowledge base, but if you've got questions I'll do my best to answer.
Technical questions
Gun control proposals for feasibility
Industry
Training
Wacky opinions
General geekery
Some competition links (not my own) just for the interested.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=U5IhsWamaLY&t=173
https://youtube.com/watch?v=93nEEINflXE
https://youtube.com/watch?v=utcky0zq10E
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Notes -
This might be a bit out of your intended scope of your AMA, apologies if so. But, what's wrong with the US military?
That is pretty loaded and probably needs some elaboration, but from an outsider perspective, it seems like I hear a lot of stories about e.g. lowering intellectual and physical standards, projects that are wildly overbudget and delayed, and general screw ups. Are these reflective of real changes in the US military? Does it vary by branch or organizational unit? Are other countries running into similar problems?
And, supposing there are real problems, what would you do to fix them, if you stayed in it long enough and earned enough promotions to have some clout? To what extent could political leadership drive improvements?
Tough to say. Militaries are all dysfunctional in some way or another. The US would seem to be one of the least dysfunctional in some areas, and the most in others. The worst is the absolute shitpile of money that gets wasted by the MIC, but we're Americans and rich, so even the scandals about five hundred dollar hammers and the like just washes downstream.
I don't think the intellectual standards have anywhere to go in the downward direction. When I joined back in '01, the cutoff was a 28 on the ASVAB (think of that as a percentage), and you could get a waiver down to a 23. It's a multiple choice test. A monkey could pass, literally.
The physical standards are the victim of the push to get women into every job in the military, and god knows the ladies just can't push, run, ruck, jump or lift like dudes. They always swear they're going to maintain the standards, then women get in and fail to a person, and the standards have to change.
And the difference is not small. They've changed the test several times since I was in, but the test back in the day was the APFT. Just in the push-up section, the minimum for a male was 44 pushups (unit minimums were much higher, but the Army standard was 44). You do 43 and you're in the fat program. Do 43 three times and you get kicked out. The minimum for women of the same age was seven. Meanwhile, anything less than 75 in an Infantry unit marked you out as the weak link.
Is the current recruiting crisis also a major factor in lowering standards? What do you think is causing the recruiting crisis?
I'm not sure there is a recruiting crisis. Some people missed quota, it's not a big deal. You'll know if there's a recruiting crisis if the recruiting bonuses max out.
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