Three days before being sworn-in, Brazil's far-right President-Elect Jair Bolsonaro stated on Saturday that he intends to sign a decree to allow people with no criminal record to buy guns.
"By decree, we intend to guarantee the POSSESSION of firearms for the citizen without criminal antecedents, as well as make its registration definitive," Bolsonaro wrote on Twitter.
The loosening of firearms laws was one of the key platforms in Bolosonaro's campaign for the 2018 elections. The former army captain will take office on January 1.
Bolsonaro gave no further details and it was not immediately clear what mechanisms he will have at his disposal to carry out such a decree, or what specific measures the decree would contain.
Brazil's Congress is already discussing measures to loosen gun laws.
In 1980, Brazil had a homicide rate of about 12 per 100,000 people, only a little higher than the United States. The U.S. had a homicide rate of of 10.2 in the same year. In 2017, 37 years later, the United States homicide rate dropped in half to 5.2, while Brazil's rate almost tripled to over 30.
Between 1980 and 2017, the United States has been incrementally restoring Second Amendment rights. The number of guns owned per capita (per person) has increased from .75 to 1.25, or 67%.
Brazil took the opposite approach, placing numerous restrictions on gun ownership. It is almost impossible for a law abiding citizen to use a gun in self defense in Brazil. Legal gun ownership in Brazil is about .038 guns per capita. (3.8 guns per 100 people). Illegal gun ownership is a little higher at about .045 guns per capita (4.5 guns per 100 people).
Presidential front runner Jair Bolsonaro promised to take a different tack.
Bolsonar wishes emulate the United States, to some extent, and recognize Brazilians' right to armed defense of self and property. Brazil has one of the top ten highest murder rates in the world.
There is strong support for this in the Brazilian legislature. Reforms to Brazil's extremely restrictive gun laws are very likely to pass in 2019, whatever President Bolosnaro declares.
Brazilians are fed up with high crime and murder rates. Many wish to be able to defend themselves against armed criminals.
George Soros, through his protege Rebecca Peters, worked hard to rid Brazil of legal firearms. In 2003, the already strict Brazilian firearms laws became extreme. The homicide rate, both with and without firearms, leveled off at about 30 per 100,000 in 2004.
Rebecca Peters actively campaigned for a nearly complete ban on legal Brazilian guns and ammunition, in 2005.
Peters has been considered one of the major personalities behind the extreme gun laws passed in Australia, in 1996. Those laws were passed because of the Port Arthur mass murder, which was perpetrated in late April of 1996.
In 1995, Rebecca Peters produced a thinly disguised documentary on gun laws in in Tasmania, Australia. The video "Tassie Guns, a Current Affair, essentially told people how to commit a mass murder, while it called for extreme gun control.
Australia's Port Arthur's mass murder was committed less than a year later.
Rebecca Peters message was supported by pols which claimed 80% of Brazilians wanted to ban legal guns and ammunition.
In 2005, the Brazilian population voted against the gun and ammunition ban. 64% voted against the ban.
Jair Bolsonaro has tapped into this common sense desire to be able to defend oneself with armed force. From the bbc.com in 2005:
Beni Barbosa, the "No" campaign spokesman, said: "We managed to get our message across that Brazilians have individual rights which the state cannot take away."That sentiment seems to have been correct. Jair Bolosnaro won the election in 2018, with 55.2% of the vote.
"Here, people were not choosing whether to have a gun or not. They were voting for their rights to choose."
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
While gun liberty actions and their effects in the US have some influence; I suspect that if the Brazil experiment shows powerful and beneficial results as well, it will change many opinions in the rest of the world.
ReplyDelete