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

For most of the Air Force it's true, very little training with a weapon. Being in a Combat Mobility Branch it was different.

Perhaps things are a bit different now as there aren't really "front lines" any longer. We can expect no safe spaces in future competition and warfare. But the USAF Security Forces are very good, in some ways perhaps better than the Army MP's. Mind you, they're both great. I agree that all military personnel should be qualified with a self-defense weapon. My strong personal preference is for a .45 with knock-down powerBut not everyone should be carrying an M-4 (or in my day, an M-16 or CAR-15).

Because you will spend most of your time sitting and being idle. The Chair Service depends on others to aid them while wearing out chairs.

I was a flight medic, 1977-2000. I qualified expert on the M-16 and M-9.I also completed Land and Water Survival training. I was considered a non combatant.

You are absolutely correct. When i joined the AF in 1950, we had M-1s and went to the range a couple times. I though we should have been at the range every day. Every member of the military should be able to handle a rifle and/or a handgun. I fired a .45 once at the range. How ridiculous. For God's sake it is the military after all. I am now 88 years old and go to the firing range every week and can shoot the eye out of a squirrel at 50 yards.

I went through Basic Training in 1965. We had to qualify and earn the small arms ribbon. We spent time with the M16 on the range and breaking it down cleaning and reassembling. When did that change?

As enlisted army infantry, I qualified in M16 and 45 Cal every 6 months for my 2 year enlistment. As a Naval officer, I wasn't required to qualify once in 18 years.

My first military time, 3 years, was spent in the US Army as a military policeman. As memory serves I had an MOS of 951, MP, also a secondary MOS of 111, infantry. When I switched branches to the Air Force I was in the Security Police. We were the "infantry" of the Air Force, solely as air base ground defense. We had responsibility for everything inside the wire, the Army had everything else. In my day in the Army we had WACS. The only time I was every in contact with any WACS was at Fort Lewis, WA. Besides the 4th Inf Div, the post played host to six WACS, all of whom handled the paperwork at the rifle ranges. As to why most AF personnel are not fire arms proficient, is the training they receive in basic. I would load my boys into buses for the trip to the range, for a half day of shooting, the same for female airman. It was there they had contact with the M-16. I can still recall me amazement when I was told they fired .22 cal ammo. Whether they qualified or not made no difference as to their graduating. Even while performing as a training instructor(read DS) I still had to quality with my primary weapon, a .38 caliber revolver, then transition to the Beretta M-9, 9 millimeter pistol. As a AF reservist Security Policeman assigned to an active duty SP squadron, I had to qualify twice a year with both M-9 and the M-16. In the event that I failed to qualify I would not be allowed to carry the weapon in question while on duty. I remember in the Army I had to qualify with the M-1 rifle, the carbine, the .30 caliber machine gun, bipod mount.

Different mission requires different tactics. In the Army, the enlisted Soldiers are the primary combat element, where the officers’ (both commissioned and non-commissioned) Primary duties are to prepare those Soldiers for battle.
In the Air Force, officer pilots are the primary combat element, where the Airmen prepare them and their equipment for battle.

I agree completely with SSGT CHRIST. If we retain the mentality "we were never intended to be a ground fighting unit". We are set ourselves up for multiple failure points. The AF is not the Force of yesterday..."in the rear with the gear" and even if they were to continue in the rear...an escape from the term "armed forces" is truly illogical. In case you have been sleeping... the horizon has changed and it's not stuck in concrete. In harm's way is our job...train for it or just prepare to die ...pure and simple.

Our senior leadership understand this and we are evolving... "train like we fight" no matter the AFSC. Get of the keyboard and get some weapons training... Its more paramount now than ever before. Plainly speaking, yesterday's AF had members affiliated with weaponry and tactics. Today, there is an extreme lack of this knowledge due to the redicoulous media labeling of "evil guns". I saw train them all.. stop being the old mentality.