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
Jump in the discussion.
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Notes -
Re: Military Service
If you were dealing with a ~115IQ teenager graduating high school at 17, open to a few years of service/misery, would ROTC contract+ College then commission make more sense, or first a 3 year Enlistment (assume desired MOS due to prepped ASVAB, Eagle Scout rank bump) + Guard/Reserves during College paid by GI bill?
Or screw either, not worth time and stress, that answer makes tons of sense too.
A part of the calculus that throws a slight wrench into the decision is that the $0 VA loan can go for a million and can be used on a 4-plex (assume parents of said kid built credit to 725 by making them an authorized user on a credit card that mostly makes utility payments).
I'd say the kid should be really certain it's what he wants to do, and if so, commit fully. If you go in thinking of it like a job that you'll go home from and have a life, it's a rude awakening. You've got to embrace the suck.
Plan on not getting married or having kids while active, and take precautions. There's a wanna-be Dependapotamus behind every barracks shrub. The extra pay ain't worth it. Military life is hell on families, deployments are worse. Last platoon I had, the divorce rate was 100% within six months of getting back.
As to the question: if it's career advice, ROTC>Active Officer Corps is the best for long-term prospects. Enlisted is a piratical bunch of lower- and under-class dicks, pricks, assholes and lunatics, has all the shit jobs and are the only real soldiers. Go there to fuck around and find out. Avoid the Guard and Reserves if you can, they're shit units and you never get promoted.
Whether it's worth it....it is to some people. A lot more think it is, and find out it isn't. I always said eighty percent of the military shouldn't be there. They are not cut out for the life. It was worth it to me, but that's probably a character flaw.
That might exceed the scope of your intendend AMA, but is that really workable? A society needs people to defend it, and if those people can't have families/kids, aside from the obvious cultural issues the army has at the moment (it's really, really unpopular among large swathes of the young population), I don't see how we can long-term retain a decently sized army. Also, aren't army families (multiple generations of army membership) in america allegedly really common? What changed? Or would you see army membership as a strictly young man's game, so they can still have families/kids afterwards?
They are.
It's no guarantee of quality though, as the recent f'pupravage' fiasco illustrates.](https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/dec/14/army-soldiers-under-investigation-wearing-bondage-/)
Nothing about present-day United States is long-term workable. But seeing as in most armies soldiers serve 4-8 years and then get out, it's really no big deal. There's even services that prohibit marriage to common soldiers, e.g. French Foreign legion. You can marry after 8 years or if you make it to an NCO rank, I believe.
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