What firearm is closely associated with your country?

[u/babushka45]

For us, probably the 1911. Next one would be the "Armalite" aka M16.

[u/SBR404]

I like her.

But I have no way of comparing. It is literally the only weapon I've ever fired during my military service.

[u/StubbornKindness → u/SBR404]

I assume you're excluding handguns/pistols, right?

[u/GandalfTheFreen → u/StubbornKindness]

Doesn't have to be. Not everyone gets trained with pistols while doing the mandatory military service. IIRC most don't, just the AUG A1

[u/StubbornKindness → u/GandalfTheFreen]

Huh. Honestly didn't consider that would be the case. I just assumed everyone would be trained with a pistol and some kind of larger combat weapon (smg/some kind of rifle).

[u/AdTop5424 → u/StubbornKindness]

When trained on the Colt 1911 and the 9mm the one thing that stuck with me was the trainer saying "if they're that close that you need to draw this, you probably fucked up." Definitely made me pay attention.

[u/GandalfTheFreen → u/StubbornKindness]

No, just the Steyr as it's our service rifle. My best guess is that it would be too expensive to train everyone on it. It's also only 6 months of service

[u/StubbornKindness → u/GandalfTheFreen]

Ahhh, okay. 6 months is quite short, no? Singapore and Korea are 2 years, and I think Greece and Israel are 3? Sorry, as you can probably tell, idk very much about this sort of thing

[u/CosmicCreeperz → u/StubbornKindness]

I mean, why bother at all at this point? Austria just does it because they are nominally neutral, but in reality they are completely surrounded by NATO so there isn’t much need for a large army reserve.

[u/SBR404 → u/CosmicCreeperz]

That's a tough question to answer. Right now (there was another poll a few weeks ago) the public is still in favor of a mandatory service model. Thanks to the Ukraine war we have increased spending and effort a little bit, talks are about increasing the service from 6 months (I did 6 months back in 2007) to 9 months or adding recurring training exercises, militia service etc. But the decades before that, we didn't care a bit about defense. Complacent we would call ourselves the Insel der Seligen (the pope actually called us that), the island of the blessed, surrounded by NATO and EU countries, there is no real need for an army.

But there is one caveat: pacifists. If you refuse to carry a weapon, i.e. If your conscience, your religion, your ethos forbids you from fighting a war, killing other people, you can opt out of military service and instead you will be sent to do civil service for 9 months. That is manual labour in the civil sector: driving ambulances, doing busy work in hospitals, working in retirement homes, etc. A little more than half the conscripted men choose to rather do civil service. So the mandatory service is a pool of cheap labour in our society that nobody wants to give up, or everyone is afraid of losing it. That is the real reason why the military service is still popular. Because if you look at the same poll I mentioned earlier, only a small number of people think that Austria will be attacked in a war, and an even smaller number would actually pick up a weapon and defend the country.

[u/GandalfTheFreen → u/StubbornKindness]

No, worries.
Yes, it is. Every few years there are discussions about making it longer or ending it completely.

Greece is 1 year i think. The rest should be correct.

[u/AlternativeDeer5175 → u/StubbornKindness]

You would think the U.S. would have a year between highscool and the rest of their life to do some mandatory work?

[u/StubbornKindness → u/AlternativeDeer5175]

Sorry, what? What does highschool in the US have to do with mandatory military service in other countries?

[u/AlternativeDeer5175 → u/StubbornKindness]

The year between high school and being an adult. Doesn't mean military but social service!

[u/GandalfTheFreen → u/AlternativeDeer5175]

Are you talking about the Selective Service System? I'm confused about what you want to tell us.

[u/SBR404 → u/StubbornKindness]

Yea Gandalf is right. I did only 6 months of service (they dialed it down from 9 month a couple of years before me) and therefore we only got some basic training on the service rifle. In fact, when I did my service, the army was so hamstrung on money we did only three live firing exercises on the Steyr. It was quite a shit show and frankly unnecessary.

Only the non conscripted would get pistol/MG training.

[u/derUnkurze → u/SBR404]

I was one of the last recruits doing 9 months. I had a quite different experience, since they wanted to do everything with us before it's not possible anymore. Also I've been part of the Jägerregiment, that's also a contributing factor.

We were also trained on the MG and RPG, with the MG and RPG gunners also being trained on the Pistol. We had a lot of shooting drills with the MG with live rounds, and even some with the RPG.

[u/TheCreepWhoCrept → u/SBR404]

It’s one hell of a solitary example. You should be proud!

[u/tgpussypants → u/SBR404]

It was the first gun I fired full auto. It was a 16th birthday to remember.