As I said, this thread is being carried way off topic. Why the fixation on ID cards?

The OP said, "I called the Italian Embassy in Los Angeles today and the woman I spoke to said it very easy for a non Italian citizen to bring in a firearm for a competition."

As I said, it can be done, but it is not easy. I used my experience with getting an ID card only to illustrate some of the difficulties of working within the Italian bureaucracy. I could just as well have used how hard it is to pay your electricity or gas bill, or how you have to pay a tax to have a TV in your house, or a radio in your car, and how difficult that is to explain to the authorities when you have a roommate, and the government doesn't know which one of you to tax for the TV. I think most people get the point I was trying to make, and don't take things too literally, or get caught up in minutiae.

Of course you don't have to carry ID at all times, or get thrown in jail. I don't bring my ID with me when I go out for a run, either in Italy or in the USA. That doesn't mean that you don't need to carry an ID to do simple things like checking your email in Italy, renting a hotel room, buying a bottle of wine in the USA, or convincing the TSA that you should be able to board the plane without being searched and undergoing what you refer to as simply an inconvenience that is in the eye of the beholder. Or, avoiding being taken down to the police station if they have reason to suspect you have done something wrong and don't believe you when you just give them your name and DOB, with no ID.

You might want to to go through life arguing with the clerk at Safeway that you don't need ID when picking up a bottle of wine, or telling the police that you have a right to refuse to show them an ID. I prefer to have ID on me for the times when it's reasonable to expect to need it.

I think you are arguing just for the sake of arguing when you say that you purchased liquor in TX, FL, and MD with no ID check and you are almost 40. Regardless, the drinking age is 21 in all states. I'm almost 25 years older than you, and I still get asked to show my ID. It doesn't matter that you've had the experience of checking into a hotel and not having to show an ID. The next time they might say no, and you could be sleeping under a bridge.

I don't know where you hear things like you, "heard the San Fran consulate is one of the not-so-hot ones." It's an enormous, one block long building, surrounded by trees, that looks like an embassy, and handles all consular functions, like the consulate in New York City. The Houston consulate is a small sitting room, in a large office shared by dozens of businesses, with a few plastic chairs and one window with a teller behind it, like a mini-bank. It's not even open every day.

I don't agree with your statement that Texas has strict gun control laws. I just arrived to a Texas Border town to work today, and am on duty from Friday evening until 8AM Monday morning. It is a veritable certainty that I will be dealing with at least one, and probably as many as 3-4 gun shot incidents. It almost always happens.

You probably know this and are just arguing, but you can buy a gun in Texas at a sporting goods store, gun show, or even a pawn shop with no waiting period, just a 30 second computerized background check and a simple form. You can even buy a gun from an independent person on the street with no questions asked, all you need to do is show an ID to prove that you are a resident of Texas, and be 18 to get a rifle or shotgun, or 21 to get a handgun. You can carry that loaded pistol in your car within arms reach, wherever you want to go.

I'm suggesting that from what I know, transporting a gun into Italy is difficult, and the OP should be prepared for that. The club he is going to for his competition is in the hills, 40 minutes outside of Perugia. It advertises itself as a small vacation house with a swimming pool and a restaurant run by six members of their family.

They advertise that you can stay in their lodge, or just go there to "gustare semplicemente i piatti della tradizione locale preparati con ingredienti genuini e selezionati, serviti nel nostro ristorante," or "simply to enjoy our traditional food made with selected, genuine ingredients in our restaurant."

Their "contact person" who I spoke to in Italian, had no idea how someone from outside the country goes about bringing a shotgun there.The also say, "Munizioni: Reperibili presso la struttura nei locali appositi, ad uso esclusivo dei soci," or "ammo is only available on site for members of our club."
You can also see on their website that they invite you to email questions, but they don't seem to have been answered any since July, 2012, and that was just a post telling people to try out a tournament they were having the following month.

The last email question they received, which went unanswered, was in July 2013, "Auguri, cerco se e possibile a ricevere un invito a la gara de tiro a volo a Piancardato il 28 de Luglio. Arrivo a Milan domani pomerigio, avendo particcipato ne la Spagna a il 35 Campionato del Mondo. Spetando la tua risposta. Grazie, Ciao Robert Passarin."

"Greetings, I'm checking to see if it's possible for me to receive an invitation to the skeet shooting tournament in July. I arrive in Milan tomorrow afternoon, having participated in the Spanish 35th world championship. I hope for your response."

That's more like how things often work. It's not going to be as simple as filling out some papers, checking in the weapon at LAX, picking it up at the airport police station in Rome, and heading to Umbria. It may well take until 2016 to make sure that this is done right, without disappointments. I do suggest starting with a call to one of the brothers at the lodge, whose cell phone I already provided, who said he can find someone to speak english.

I am done arguing tangents about ID cards, checking into hotels without ID, buying booze in MD, etc, that have nothing to do with travel or with this thread.