[5] In March 2023, the new president Luciano Rossi of Italy expressed his desire to reinstate Russian and Belarusian athletes so they can compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Target shooting sports developed rapidly through the second half of the 19th century as a side effect of national security concerns.

The National Rifle Association was founded in London in 1859 with the aim of raising funds for a shooting competition (the Imperial Meeting) to promote marksmanship amongst the Volunteer movement.

Following the desire of the first ISSF leaders to make their organization a world sport institution, more national federations joined L'Unione Internationale in the ensuing years: in 1912, 284 shooters coming from 16 different countries participated in the Games of the V Olympiad.

In 1920 President Mérillon invited representative of the previous members and from the countries established after the world war to come to a meeting in Paris on 16 April 1920, with the intent to renew ISSF activities.

Delegates from 14 countries attended the meeting and agreed to re-establish the ISSF under the name L'Union Internationale de Tir, and Daniel Mérillon was re-elected President of the Union.

After a formal appeal, in 1932 shooting was re-included in the Olympic program, but the number of events was widely reduced and many of the world's best marksmen were missing because they were labeled incompatible with the IOC amateur standards.

[citation needed] In 1966 the UIT decided to recognize its events as mixed ones, allowing women to compete alongside men in every official competition, including the 1968 Olympic Games and their three following editions.

The Mexican, an active shooter with four Olympic Games and five World Championship participations,[17] was elected in February 1980, with 125 out of 132 votes in his favor.

Also in 2006, Olegario Vázquez Raña and Horst Schreiber were voted and re-elected respectively as President and Secretary General of the ISSF.

Following what the IOC President Jacques Rogge called "a tradition", the first gold medal of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad was awarded on August 9 to Kateřina Emmons, a Czech shooter competing in the 10 m Air Rifle Women event.

[18] In 2017, the ISSF made the unusual move to refer Vice-President Luciano Rossi [it] (also head of the Italian Clay Pigeon Federation (FITAV)) to the Ethics Committee, accusing him of conflicts of interest and disloyalty.

Rossi had criticised the changes to the Olympic Shooting Programme, which included dropping the Prone Rifle, 50 meter Pistol and Double Trap shotgun events.

[26] Rossi appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport who reduced the three-year suspension to just 20 weeks, whilst increasing his fine from CHF30,000 to CHF50,000.

[32][33] At the 68th ISSF General Assembly, Russian oligarch Vladimir Lisin was elected over Italian Luciano Rossi by 148 votes to 144.

In September 2019, Rossi challenged the election result alleging irregularities that prevented two federations from voting - which he claimed would have led to a tie.

[39][40] Taking office in November 2018, Lisin immediately announced the formation of a USD$10M Development Fund for the 2019-2022 quadrennium, seeded from his personal wealth.

[44] In June 2022, the ISSF claimed that more than $3.5m had been distributed by the fund, with an additional $1.1m worth of equipment for sport development receiving by 43 national federations.

[54][55] In November 2022, the Nordic Shooting Region issued an open letter to all ISSF member federations expressing deep concern regarding the development of the sport and calling for stability in the rule book and competition programme.

[56] This followed organisational difficulties at the 2022 Rifle & Pistol World Championships in Cairo, backdropped by a recent history of fluid rules.

However, since the publication of the 2017 rules (following the 2016 Olympic Games), the format of multiple events had been changed and updated, sometimes just weeks before major matches.

Matters came to a head in May 2022 when Lisin unilaterally announced rule changes for the shotgun disciplines prior to the Baku World Cup.

[58] In the November 2022 edition of Deutsche SchützenZeitung (the monthly magazine of Deutscher Schützenbund), Chief Editor Harald Strier also decried the "chaos" of the Cairo World Championships, claiming that the schedules had constantly changed and that rules used in such cases as tie breaks had not been clarified.

He went on to claim that (unspecified) threats had been made by ISSF leadership, and criticised the selection of an expensive holiday resort (Sharm El Sheikh) as the destination for the 70th General Assembly.

[5] In March, both Alexander Ratner and Vladimir Lisin had been barred from attending the 10m European Shooting Championships in any official capacity,[60][61] amid calls for them to step aside.

[66] In October 2022, the US was urged to sanction Lisin, amid claims that his steel firm had supplied materials to companies connected with Russian nuclear weapon development.

[67][68][69][70] In March 2023, the new president Luciano Rossi of Italy expressed his desire to reinstate Russian and Belarusian athletes so they can compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

[72] Alexander Ratner - the ISSF Secretary-General - published an open letter in defence of Lisin, which included stinging personal criticism of Rossi.

[94] In March 2023, Rossi expressed his desire to reinstate Russian and Belarusian athletes so they can compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris as neutrals.

[7][95] In December 2023, the Executive Committee convened an Extraordinary Meeting at the request of Rossi, where Willi Grill was dismissed as Secretary General, the reasons for which were not disclosed.