Should a Soldier be chaptered for failure to qualify with their weapon?

I see your point but the only thing I can say is though soldiers need more training on the class room and out in the field to teach them how to correctly use their weapon. It really is not that hard to pass the rifle range. When I was at the range a few years ago after transferring to a new unit I did not get a weapon issued to me so CSM handed me his rifle and told me to go qualify without zeroing in my weapon. I passed with a 28 out of 40 first time go. I also feel that if you are having issues with passing your PT test because you gained allot of weight then maybe you need to think hard about what you put in your mouth along with getting out there and working out more. I do not agree with kicking any soldier out of the military because of these two issues because the military has spent so much money on your training in the first place and some soldiers want to get kicked out so this is what they do. Give them what they do not want keep them around and give them the shitty jobs. GO ARMY.

It depends. How much practice/training has this soldier had with his/her assigned weapon prior to IWQ? National Guard and Reserves only get to touch a weapon once a year, if they are lucky. Unless you are just a natural, it is hard to remain proficient.

What was their qual score in Basic? How long have they been in and how many times have they failed to qual since Basic? Is PMI being conducted prior to range?

Is this really that big of a problem today?? I don't believe I ever served with someone that didn't at least qualify marksman.

I would agree with you if the Army was consistent in the training and testing of this valuable skill.
I put REAL lead down range once in the the last 6 years. I was my first time in 4 years. I still managed expert because I am comfortable with my technique.

Virtual training and qualification (ETS 2000) has its benefits, especially with leadership training during the scenarios, but we all know that the simulation only come so close to real conditions.

Paper vs Pop-ups. Both have a standard, and there is a reason why one can't use paper for every IWQ. Yet, range availability and other issues often put folks that do have a chance to fire, on paper ranges more often then they should.

Pop up ranges need to be better maintained to allow a fair assessment of a soldier's shooting ability. In the range that I recently qualified at, I put my weapon on burst and lit up my 50 meter target to prove to the safety that it was defective. (Would not drop). He closed that lane and I fired in a different lane with next group.

Not as much of an excuse (or should not be), but many Reserve Soldiers often share weapons with other units.

I understand where you are coming from, but there are already consequences for bad weapon skills. This some in play through loss of promotion points, and in some cases, improvement bullets on NCOERs. I would imagine that those who tend to rely on marksmanship skills, would be justiifed in pushing a repeated failure to another MOS, but that is about as far as it should go.

BLUF. If a Soldier can not or does not qualify IWQ it is a Leadership FAIL.

No. And here's why. ** This is just my humble opinion**
A. Apples and oranges between APFT and IWQ. You can do PT twice a day with APFT failures and even weekends. That won't do a bit of good if said Soldier runs back to their room and hits the snack shack/BK, and a box of twinkles while playing CoD half the night.
B. If PMI is done(key point here), and ALL training resources are utilized i.e.:EST, Beam Hit, and quality NCO mentorship ANYONE can qualify.

Any SRNCO that's been in at least 10+ yrs has run into "that guy" that couldn't hit his a@@ 2 times with 3 hands and 4 attempts. But (again my humble opinion) IWQ is probably one of the simplest tasks to accomplish. Now proficiency and lethality is another conversation. So we'll just stick with the basics.
SGM Erik Marquez
SGT William Howell

There isn't one. After a nerve injury to my left arm I wasn't able to qualify anymore. Which sucked because I love to shoot. I requested and received a medical chapter on the grounds that I was no longer able to perform the basic task of firing and sustaining that fire as needed. There were about a half a dozen other medical issues that I could have put me out years before I finally quit playing tough guy and ate my pride and stepped away from the pay cage. 13 years 3 months and 3 days.

I was in since methuselah was a shield bearer and I never encountered a Soldier who couldn't be trained to hit enough targets to qualify. Granted we had to resort to some ancient technologies like dime/ washer drills, target boxes to retrain sight pictures and taping a patch over the troops non sighting eye. Prior to deployment for 05-07 we had a Soldier purposely trying to fail due to the urban legend that if they couldn't qualify they couldn't deploy. Answer... counseling, I pointed out that the BC could waive portions of the checklist and the troop would deploy anyway and we always needed SST escorts on deployment on the FOBs so qualify or ride shotgun on the S**t truck for the next year. Troop qualified, Oh the power of persuasion.

Yes they should. Being a Soldier comes first regardless of MOS. Every Soldier has qualified at least once in their career to graduate basic training. That means they were trained and certified to be a Soldier. If for some reason that changes then they should face the same consequences as someone who fails to meet any other standard. The Army has standards for a reason and that is to have an Army full of people that can do what others cannot.

I can speak for the US Army, but as a Marine if you cannot shoot, you are separated. This is the one task you must be able to accomplish. Marines are gunfights first and foremost. No task is more important that the ability for you to protect yourself and your fellow Marines. Just my opinion.