Why don't all members of the Air Force have to be fully qualified to be a rifleman in case of hostile events?

When I joined in 1972 we spent 1 day doing survival training and the gun range. Survival consisted of marching to a mess tent set up a couple of miles away. There was no salt or pepper for our meal. The gun range we learned to break down the weapon and put it back together. Then off to the range to fire like I think 100 rounds. If your gun jammed you stuck your thumb in your ear till a qualified person un-jammed your gun. When I was headed to southeast asia we spent a whole day firing-prone, thru windows,other ways-clicked off some rounds in auto. I remember interrogation resistance training. and who knows what else. We were going into a hot area and they wanted us to have some training. I had a an air force buddy at Bien Hoa AFB during Tet. He was a crew chief like me. Someone told him to get in a hole, handed him an M-16 and ammo and to shoot the enemy.
But remember, your job is to protect the base and personnel on the base. My job was to keep the birds flying. There's a big difference in job descriptions. Didn't you have the occasional thought to ride co-pilot in a F-16 just once? Why couldn't you? Cause you don't know squat about the aircraft. I flew co-pilot on a mission (complicated story) in an OV-10 because I knew the aircraft. Stick to your job and do it well Airman-all the best.

I absolutely agree. EVERY member of the military should be able to handle a rifle and sidearm and be required to go through bi-annual training and practice for it.

I was on a Joint Task Force in Baghdad, Iraq. Several Air Force personnel had huge difficulty adapting to an outside the wire OPTEMPO. Our CO was an Air Force Colonel. It got back to me that he had shot the clearing barrel on two occasions because he could not remember to drop the magazine, clear the chamber, and pull the trigger. The next convoy he and I went on Together and every time thereafter, I accompanied him to the clearing barrel and talked him through it. He always wanted to clear the chamber, then drop the mag. This left a round in the chamber which he then shot the barrel with. I know he shot the barrel one more time after that and got a verbal reprimand from his next higher Commander. I find it hard to fathom that the Air Force feels that weapons training prior to combat zone deployment is not important nor time effective. Last time I checked the Air Force was part of the US Military. Not saying you have to be a weapon expert but competence and safety are a must. Just like knowing how to fly an aircraft correctly, or drive your vehicle, or just about anything else that can result in your death if not done to standard.

If it is the Air Force, why aren't you a pilot? Because we all have a different skill to bring to "the fight". The Marines (my first service) wear crossed rifles to signify all are riflemen. Each service has a role, and within those services a task - cyber, space, air base ground defense, etc. All have to familiarize with the weapon to become a member, but not everyone needs your level of expertise...that's why we need you. I expect Airmen join the military for a litany of reasons, but to carry a weapon may not be the primary reason. Bottom line, teach them well.
Col K2 USAF retired (but an enlisted Marine first)

They got cheap did not want pay for AMO and the virtual Weapons training stucks

The issue is proficiency; I am a firm believer in it. You either do something or you don’t you don’t maybe do it. The Air Force has for longtime treated weapons qualifications as a joke. As I remember my AFSC would fire like 50 rounds every two years and out of that you are qualified for combat. We were not trained to March, run, crawl, with a weapon. While at Eglin AFB we would have exercise with unloaded weapons I can’t tell you how many time I would get on a bus with people that had for whatever reason the bolts pulled back and they hit the stock down on the floor of the bus and all you could hear was the sound of 9 or 10 bolts going forward and you could tell they had no idea what had done at least at Kelly AFB we were issued blank’s and we would go to camp Bullies and were actually attack but we were never trained in anyway how to coordinate fire or move. In my AFSC we would watch a training film on how to put out a fire, in my 22 years I had seen 4 aircraft burn to the ground. So I think that maybe we should do hands on firefighting and watch a film on weapons use.
That all being said SP,OSI, CE especially Prime beef, PJ’s, Forward controllers, and Combat weather do get more training and are qualified and maybe more (sorry if I missed anyone) but the last thing you want is a bunch of people around you that don’t know what the hell to do in combat.

The Air Force's raison d'être is "air, space and cyberspace superiority" as the Air Force mission is to "fly, fight and win in air, space and cyberspace." After the experience of World War II and nuclear weapons, the Air Force was born mainly to strike distant adversaries and conduct nuclear operations. Although the Air Force branched from the Army, its organizing principle is aviation forces both combat and service, providing the Army with close combat and logistical air support (strategic air warfare, airlift, aerial refueling, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance).

However, I do agree that rifle qualification should be part of Air Force Readiness. Currently, only airmen who bear firearms on duty, who are armed in-garrison, or deploying to a contingency operation are given proper weapons training and are limited to the type of weapon they are authorized to carry. As for my AFSC, if deployed, I will only be trained on the M9.

The Air Force requires an annual Active Shooter Training (Expeditionary Active Shooter Training for airmen deploying) that teaches airmen to "escape, barricade, or fight" but again, your fighting chance is limited to the type of weapon you have been trained on and authorized to carry. Although this training also discussed that recent shootings in Germany and Afghanistan have changed the way that leadership views the criticality of weapons handling skills and that commanders must ensure weapon training extends beyond qualifications training, Air Force has yet to incorporate these into actions.

The Air Force is just different that way, also probably why it doesn't have its own battle cry.

I did already.

I answered before, below, but had another thought---the USAF lacks weapons training, the USMC infantry doesn't, or don't seem to from the outside. What I do remember the Marines lacking on one occasion was bullets in their guns. Or at least magazines. It was on the TV news in the 1980's when they walked ashore in Beruit, Lebanon, all kinds of guns and gear, and not a one of them had a magazine in their weapon. That was on the news and I watched it from the safety of the UK. I couldn't believe that. This was the Marines who got blown up not long after that and killed 200+ of them, I think it was. So, Marines, please answer a question I haven't thought of since the 1980's---was this common practice back then?

AF is the specialists of the Air not ground combat and to make us equivalent to the Army/Marines either one would require so much additional training that it would diminish our nation's Air Power. I'd rather be manning the berms with a platoon of well trained riflemen than a Wing's worth of half trained Airman at my back. That said I am a AF Qualified Marksman on the M-16/M-4 and I've never attempted to be M-9 qualified. Later in my career I was qualified on crew served weapons during convoy training such as the M-240, M-249, and M-2. Also earlier in my career before I was retrained I was Pig (M-60) qualified when I was a Civil engineer as part of our Prime Beef exercises where we went and played war games at Fort Polk. In the AF we don't have degree's of marksmanship your either Qualified, non-qualified, or a Marksman. My proficiency does not come from my military training. It came from growing up with weapons and my father a retired cop who has been shot on two separate occasions both times off duty being a be prepared for anything kind of guy.