Why does the military have assigned guns instead of letting them pick their own?

I know the real military isn't supposed to be like a video game where you can pick your gun but why do they assign specific ones? Just wondering.Why does the military have assigned guns instead of letting them pick their own?The first common sense rule would be the availability of ammunition. If you bring your own weapon and you run out of ammo where are you going to get more unless the military had to increase it's supply trains to forward every conceivable type of ammunition hoping that one or more persons could fire it.



The real reason however lies in the Geneva Convention Protocols on the use of Weapons:



The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons

The Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects as amended on 21 December 2001(CCW) is usually referred to as the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. It is also known as the Inhumane Weapons Convention.



The purpose of the Convention is to ban or restrict the use of specific types of weapons that are considered to cause unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering to combatants or to affect civilians indiscriminately. The structure of the CCW 鈥?a chapeau Convention and annexed Protocols 鈥?was adopted in this manner to ensure future flexibility. The Convention itself contains only general provisions. All prohibitions or restrictions on the use of specific weapons or weapon systems are the object of the Protocols annexed to the Convention.



http://www.unog.ch/80256EE600585943/(htt鈥?/a>Why does the military have assigned guns instead of letting them pick their own?
It's a matter of logistics and training.



Training is standardized so that everyone in the force knows how to use the same weapon. That way if you need to move twenty or thirty soldiers to a new base, you can just hand them a weapon and they are already trained on it. They can be combat effective immediately. They all also know basic repairs on the standard weapon.



Logistics is all about supply and maintenance. If your whole force uses the same weapons, it's easy to ship weapons or to pick them up at a centralized depot. Maintenance is the same - it's not like you have the luxury of spending a lot of time on thirty different kinds of weapons. That would require thirty different kinds of spare parts to be on order, thirty different sets of repair tools, a complicated system where you might have to ship one weapon to one state for maintenance, and another to another state. When you have a million people in uniform, this is just not efficient.



Basically, you need to be able to get people to a fight quickly and on short notice. This requires and efficient and standardized system. Remember, being a soldier is not about being an individual. It's about being a part of a unit.Why does the military have assigned guns instead of letting them pick their own?Individual soldiers are not issued with a specific weapon. When not in use weapons are returned to the armory and only distributed as needed. There is no guarantee the one you used last time is the same one you will get back. In any major armed force all riflemen will use the same type of rifle, all machine gunners will use the same type of machine gun, etc..., so there is no need for "individual ownership.



As you pointed out, this is reality, not a video game. NOTHING you see in a video game is real. That's the point.
The military employs the use of weapons that are a mixture of several different variables, mainly being standardization, cost effectiveness, and reliability. If every soldier had a different gun, it would be harder for him to get a replacement if necessary, ammunition would be a lot harder to parcel out, and magazines are not interchangeable. A Sig Sauer 5.56 mm assault rifle's mag, will not fit a Wilson Combat M4.



By standardizing weapons, you standardize ammunition, and any accessories for said weapon. Although as a few others responded, groups like Delta Force, SEALS, "sometimes" Rangers, etc. can carry their own weapons with their own customizations.Why does the military have assigned guns instead of letting them pick their own?You have to receive training and be checked out and certified on a weapon before they will actually issue it to you. Weapons operate differently and have different features as well as different requirements for cleaning and operating in a safe way so that you don't hurt yourself or someone else by accident. This along with having a particular weapon issued to you and all that tracked allows them to keep better inventory control over them as well as determine who oftentimes did what with their weapon if they need to examine or investigate that as well. Along with this the intended purpose of the weapon is a big factor in this. I carried a 9mm because it could be used on aircraft for anti-hijacking among other things and it being a sidearm, semiautomatic weapon would do less damage if I had to fire it on board an aircraft. However in the field and deployed I carried an M4 also sometimes when going down range and doing anti-terrorism stuff as opposed to aircrew type duties.Why does the military have assigned guns instead of letting them pick their own?
First of all, I am a former Marine. With that being said, a critical issue hasn't been addressed with regards to your question yet. You see, the United States complies (at least on paper anyway) with the rules set forth in the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions require the use of NON-EXPANDING full metal jacket ammunition. If troops were allowed to carry their own weapons into a combat zone, some would undoubltedly use hollow point and expanding rounds in their own personal weapons. Its alot easier for the armed forces to issue government owned weapons and ammuntion to try to ensure that the use of illegal ammo doesn't happen.
Control of the workforce IS MO BETTA than playing civilian PC games!!!



Marching is also part of that. Moving in a controlled and well formed mass creates a well behaved movement that is completely different from the cluster flop escape efforts created by yelling "FIRE" in a crowded room.



SSG US Army 73-82



THEY ARE ALL THE SAME EXACT WEAPONS TOO!



DROP AND GIVE ME 50. Perhaps that will help you think in the future.



Edit: A note for Gman. It is obvious you have never read the Geneva Conventions. The Hague Conventions define the Laws and Customs of War on Land. If you are going to claim to be a Marine and pass on info do not embarrass the Corps by passing out bad info.



In addition military weapons are controlled items, just like prescription drugs, only certain people can posses them. By assigning a specific serial numbered weapon that weapon can be tracked. Even those sidearms that are not controlled to use by civilainas are the property of the US government and as such are tracked and inventoriedWhy does the military have assigned guns instead of letting them pick their own?
Logistics and the law. We must have common weapons so we can resupply the soldiers with ammunition. That would be difficult if everyone brought their own weapon of varying calibers. Legally we must ensure soldiers are using weapons that do not violate the laws of war. As far as picking up a weapon on the battlefield goes, that is done when needed.
Because the ammunition is standardized so that it'll be readily available for their weapons.



Point blank, if you have a buncha guys using the same kinda round, it's a lot easier to make sure they can all keep shooting than if you have a buncha guys using different caliber rifles, handguns and shotguns.



Even getting deeper into that, with the weapon itself standardized, where you know about how many rounds a magazine holds and how many mags a soldier can carry, it helps you decide just how much ammunition to send to this post or that post.
so that when one soldier is shot or loses his weapon in battle, he can pick up some one elses rifle and already know how to use it.
You are assigned a weapon, but some especially those in combat carry extra.
Depends on what you were trained to do. A rifle would not be much good if you were in a tank. A side arm would be better.
they are all the same weopon, except for a few M203's and a few M60's.
they assign it when you in lest and show up be for you ever see it they put the list of people next to the cereal numbers end then if you move up to sniper are something else they trade you up