Americans actually do shoot quite well, but the rules around gun handling are incredibly strict for Olympic shooting.
Things like minor celebrations, emotion, or even the cadence of your walk while leaving the range can cause disqualification.
Since American shooters can't hit a bullseye without shotgunning a beer and magdumping into the sky as eagles carry exploding fireworks in celebration, they often do not place in Olympic shooting
Or in other words, what's missing from our country's gun use is respect.
The vast majority of our issues with gun violence is the fact that we disrespect guns almost as much as each other, they're just another crass tool for achieving a feeling, like power, masculinity, reassurance and comfort. So then guess what happens when you flood the streets with more guns than every other developed nation combined?
We are a nation of undisciplined shooters, they may shoot "quite well" in some cases, but for every shooter who does quite well at hitting a target you have several thousand who have no idea how to shoot, AND have no clue about gun safety, respect and responsible ownership.
Well, sure, but you don't send a random selection of citizens to the Olympics. You send the best.
The nation with the most gun owners per capita and a huge population should have many pinnacle-tier shooters, even if it also has many bad ones. So the question is, why aren't they at the Olympics?
Respect is a big part of it. Another problem is that they aren't seen as actual tools. They're probably more often a male enhancement device than a tool.
They should be viewed as a tool for the production of meat, for the efficient removal of varmints. In the worst case they are a tool for the defense of self or others. That worst case scenario is actually very rare.
Tools and toys can be interchangeable. However: some pretty strict laws govern the use of toys like sports cars.
My shooting tools are mostly polymer stocked or gripped. Plain, cheapest base model I can get. Then I take them apart and work on the mechanisms to make them mine. I don't have a lot of them, just have a few for my particular use cases.
I really like them. I get pleasure from using my tools. I also really like my lathe and my daily driver small truck. I've also taken them apart and worked on them.
I think this attitude should be required if one is going to own and be responsible for such a dangerous tool. There should be an interview process or something to weed out dumb fucks and the mentally unstable. After all, the militia was supposed to be well regulated. It's not particularly complicated.
The rule is you have to hold it single handed. Then everything follows logic, you need to have the arm fully extended to be more stable. You need to keep your eye behind the iron sights. etc.
Try it out yourself, extend your arm and see if you can find a more stable position.
The gun itself is the painful looking part. I've never seen a pistol that wraps around your thumb like that. Her stance seems perfect, give or take a little lean.
To anyone who is curious, that little elephant plush is her daughter's who gave it to her mom for good luck...or the mom just really wanted it, I wasn't there
Not to take anything anyway from the Olympic athletes who are incredibly talented at their sport, but their sport doesn't resemble the practical shooting of real guns.
America is a nation of immigrants and many families keep ethnic names alive through generations.
Xuefeng Cao is American and prefers to go by Luke. Lives in Maryland.
Nils Jonasson is from Phoenix, AZ.
I'm not seeing where Elias was born but he did go to college in Tuscon, AZ. Given his abundant praise of God and the USA I'm inclined to believe he may be, in fact, very American.
American police officers will spend 43 rounds on a single eight year old jaywalker while the average Japanese assassin requires less than three rounds per Prime Minister.
American shooting is a lot more flash than precision.
Legitimately there's a category of shooting sports that's about the most efficient use of WWI trenchgun style slam firing, which is basically abusing the reload speed on that class of shotgun to convert it into a semi-auto.
We literally made a sport out of what the enemy tried to get classed as a war crime as an act of spite and you're wondering why we not so good at traditional marksmanship? It's a level of decorum that America was basically founded as a fuck you against.
Legitimately there’s a category of shooting sports that’s about the most efficient use of WWI trenchgun style slam firing, which is basically abusing the reload speed on that class of shotgun to convert it into a semi-auto.
I mean, the Olympic version of traditional marksmanship is using a lightweight pellet gun that can't be holstered with a $5,000 customized hand grip and little eyeglass oculars.
You make the competition with a glock 22 and allow 5 seconds to empty the clip and it's a different competition.
Olympic shooting is just a different beast. Look at the differences in scores; it's fractions of a point, in most cases. Air guns simply aren't popular in the US, while they're one of the very few options open to most people outside of the US. And, TBH, there's not a lot of support for the Olympic shooting sports in the US, aside from possibly trap.
The "conventional" guns aren't conventional by any normal definition. I suspect that the air rifles are slightly more accurate than the .22 rifles, because it's really hard to get perfectly consistent .22 ammunition. I've known a few people that did that kind of target shooting--I think they were all Finns?--and holy hell, they're really particular about controlling for every possible variable.
Trap uses very normal shotguns, aside from being extraordinarily, exquisitely made; the over-under shotguns are works of art.
Olympic shooting has nothing to do with shooting of any other kind. The guns are custom made. Unless you are speficially training for the Olympics you'll likely never handle such a "weapon". I think using these guns is the equivalent to a running being able to use spring blades. I am not a gun owner but it feels like a pointless sport as done.
No, that is not true, these are fundamentally single shot bolt action rifles. Maybe like a race bike to a normal street bike.
The additional precision and adjustability are no use to a normal shooter but they are not more complicated to handle.
I mean, they should add a version of this competition where you shoot two guns vaguely at the ceiling without looking at it, while dancing in a cow-boy outfit.
In the states, mass shootings tend to thin out the population of competitors, leaving only Americans who have done active shooter drills and know how to find cover.
Isn't it kind of weird to point at medal counts in the Olympics to say that America sucks? Most overall medals and second in gold medals. Shitting on America, no matter if it makes sense or not.
Bit of a woosh. It's a joke about the specific category. America, the country with the largest number of shooting deaths, has 0 medals in the shooting category.
America is not the country with the highest number of shooting deaths, nor is it the country with the highest per-capita number of shooting deaths. You have been misinformed by propaganda.
At this point we've only had finals for the events that use children's guns. I'm not really surprised that China would beat us at shooting children's guns. They'd probably win a tricycle race too.
As a matter of fact, that is a thing that exists. I had a special child-sized .22 rifle when I was 5 years old. My parents kept it safely stored and allowed me to practice with it under close supervision. Sears made them, marketed as a "youth" model.
It could legitimately be an Olympic sport. Although they would need to disguise the name by calling it something like "precision drone-flying" where the goal is to drop a water balloon filled with paint onto a target or something
I think OP was pointing out that several of the competitions use air guns, but conveniently glossed over the one with shotguns (which I'm sure OP will love to know, China got a silver medal...)
It'd be nice if they had a long range category with real rifles. Most countries are already uncomfortable letting their people have access to Olympic pea shooters, so I don't think we'll ever see 1000 meter shooting as an event.