America even sucks at sucking.

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
- "I can tolerate precision shooting, but I draw the line at emotional regulation!"
- 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?
  
  smells like the gymnastics problem to me, incredibly strict ruling and doing things "too dangerous" will get points knocked off to me.
  You certainly don't need to a fucking psychopath to shoot guns respectfully, but you also shouldn't be deranged either.
  
  Those ones probably aren't trying to compete in 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 Olympic venue is probably intimidating when you're used to using schools as shooting ranges.
- yeah i was gonna ask, do we even have a team that runs for this? I feel like we would've heard about it otherwise, yknow, being american and all that.

The real reason

In fairness, you see that chick from South Korea?
- I will never have that kind of swagger
- I definitely would not want to be the guy who tried to mug her.
  
  Remember that in modern countries she wouldn't be allowed to carry that
- That grip on that thing is crazy.
  
  It looks like they took a wooden block and CNC'd her hand shape into it and nothing else. I'd like to see it from the other side.
- she looks like an arena shooter character.
  i bet she can go partially invisible for 20 seconds with a cooldown of 7 and throws mad stun bombs
  
  I just permaban her
- I don't have the slightest idea what I am looking at other than a girl holding a gun in a way that looks painful
  
  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.
- Is this a Futurama reference?
- Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
- 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

You don't gotta aim to bit a crowd of kids at a school.
- AKA Spray 'n Pray.
  
  Shots and prayers 🙏
- That's what an extended mag is for ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Sometimes classroom training doesn't translate.
- Certainly hit lots of live targets in the classrooms of Uvalde.
  
  --->The Joke--->
  _you

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.
There are actual competitons for that, such as the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) world shoots. The U.S. is much better represented in these: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPSC_Handgun_World_Shoots
- Classic Americans, making up our own rules and sucking at following the rest of the world lol
  
  True but it looks like the IPSC is international as well, and the most awards are held by a French man, so US kinda sucks a little at that too.
  
  IPSC is common around the world.
  
  We're the best in our own country!
  
  It's everyone else who sucks at following our rules, buddy 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
- It's like football, americans rule american football.
- Biathalonn used to use serious rifle rounds before they switched to .22 LR.
  
  Tbf you could definitely hunt squirrels, weasels, stoats, hare, tarmigan and many other winter animals with 22LR.
- Archery isn't "practical archery" either, and equestrian isn't "practical horseback riding".
  
  Honestly a historical version of these would be pretty damn cool alongside the modern olympic take. Show me the best 100lb longbowman
- The U.S. is much better represented in these
  Xuefeng Cao
  Nils Jonasson
  Elias Frangoulis
  Feels like America might be running a few ringers.
  
  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.

mfw the shooting venue wasn't a school
- Don't be rude.
  The venue could also be a populated street, a supermarket, or a playground. Our mass shootings aren't just limited to helpless school children.
  
  i apologize; that was culturally insensitive.

Sucks that there are no schoo children and black people available as targets.
- Their averages are still fucked.
  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.
  
  *47 rounds
  While the one Japanese assassin requires one round per 47 Prime Ministers.

Pfft. I used to bulls-eye womp rats in my T-16 back home.
- Stop bragging and go over to Tosche Station. We're totally out of power converters.

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.
  For those who aren't sure what slamfiring a shotgun is
  
  That's hilarious cause I did this with my pump action paintball gun. Didn't know there was a term for it.
- 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.

Competition shooter here. Olympic shooting is boring as hell.
Americans place really well in IPSC, USPSA, and 3gun.
The IPSC rifle world shot is happening right now in Finland.
- USPSA
  It would be a little strange if Americans didn't place well in United States Practical Shooting Association competitions
- So it should be even easier, right?
  
  No. Why do you think that logic follows?

If they had a mass shooting category we would cleanup. Who wants to shoot just one bullet at a time
- Where Americans lack in quality, they make up in quantity.

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.
- They use conventional guns as well. But they are specially designed for shooting sports.
  https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/shooting-101-olympic-equipment
  If nothing else, you can't destroy a clay pigeon in skeet shooting with an air gun.
  
  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.
  
  I don't think most Americans even know there are other guns beside the AR15 lol...
  Christ I'm so glad I dodged that gun nut culture. I was very close to falling down that rabbit-hole in younger years.
  Edit: Oof, must've pissed off some RWNJs.

We’re good shooting at crowds, not in front of them on display. Just makes it too weird.
- Americans are good at shooting, just not precisely
  
  Precisely.

That’s why muricans need assault rifles.

Even Guatemala got their first ever gold metal and it was on shooting and she broke the Olympic record.
- Nice! Congratulations, Guatemala!

I can picture the American shooters just doing pray and spray and drive bys
- They should have put up Snoop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF7xyqCDxQE
- You're not wrong.

We love shooting guns, doesn't mean we're any good at accuracy!
- As someone who has played league of legends for over a decade without any notable improvement, I can fully relate.

Don't worry. They just wrapped up the Presidential Candidate leg of the competition. School is up next and we're expected to have a strong showing.

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.
  
  Doesn't look like a similar firing experience to me.

They need to pack the targets in bunches of 20-25 and house them at an elementary school if you want these mouthbreathers to show interest😉

No no... America has always been about quantity over quality. This proves that.
- At Olympic competition you just don't have black people or school children as targets. Which is a severe disadvantage for American shooters.

Not fair, they won't even allow pre-ban machine guns firing tracer bullets in five round bursts.
- Try using mathematical triangles to protect yourself from harm.

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.

The Olympics are happening? Oh neat.

Oh the reason is simple, they're not in their own country
- What's the difference when the Olympics are hosted in the US? Child-shaped targets?
  
  It's not the shape, whispers it's the color.
  
  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.

Now that's childish

This shortened graphic doesn't even show that they got last place, smh my head

Im stick in a mental möbius thinking about the title of this post.
If we don’t suck enough at sucking means we don’t really suck. But at the same time not sucking enough at sucking means we suck more.

Ha that made me laugh

Well, you get a weapon without proving that you got the skills to use it... So, this does not surprise me.....

What do you expect? There are no political dissenters or uppity uyghurs in China. Not anymore.
Guess where the Olympians trained their shooting skills.

Hey we aim for quantity of bullets not accuracy, gotta hit as many schoolchildren as possible!

The difference between skillfully using a tool and using a tool as a proxy for personality

I am embarrassed.

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.
  
  I get the joke, it's ironic. Which should have been the title. Just like it's ironic to point to medal counts as evidence that America sucks.
  But it's Lemmy and you get extra points for shitting on America, regardless of how much sense it makes.

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.
- TIL some people think there's such a thing as a gun for children.
  
  if you told me they sell a gun specifically for children in texas i would absolutely believe it.
  that state is fucking crazy
  
  Well we do have frequent school shootings in America, so any gun that’s been used must be a children’s gun right? /S
  
  Aren’t you from Indiana? I just assumed y’all had free .22s for underprivileged children.
  
  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.
- Oh, I didn't realise there was a drone strike event coming up.
  
  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
- What guns do you imagine they will shoot next? Are you expecting the event to be sponsored by Armalite? Do you think Kalashnikova will show?
  
  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...)
  
  Shotguns. No, and no.
  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.
- Til 12 gauge double barrel shotguns are for children.
  
  Big colourful bullets so little fingies can use them. It's basically a nerf gun!
- When you say "children's gun" do you mean a gun for children to use, or a gun designed to use on children?
  
  For children to use.
- I thought American guns Are for shooting children...
  
  No, they're for shooting ourselves when we've had enough of the crushing capitalism.
- Maybe the army guys that the US sent over for trap shooting got lost on the way?
  Or perhaps shotguns are for babies, and they only know how to fire rockets or something.