President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has begun the implementation of gun control policies in Brazil. The policy comes to antagonize the previous administration’s policies, that permitted citizen to own some amount of guns and specific types of guns, that are allowed to be sold to the general public.
Jonathan Schmidt, arrived at the Rio de Janeiro Federal Police Headquarters, with a bag, packed with golden pistols and seven riffles. “I’m in love with guns,” Schmidt said, “I’d have over 2000 guns if the government allowed.”
Schmidt had already registered his firearms with the Army, as it’s required by law for sport shooters like him. But experts have questioned the validity of the database and claimed inadequate enforcement has allowed these weapons to end up in the hands of criminals. Schmidt was complying with a request from Brazil’s new left-wing president, by registering his firearms to the police registry.
In his four years in office, the former president Jair Bolsonaro attempted to transform a nation of firearm possession to a nation of firearms ownerships, and the absence of regulations meant having personal freedom.
Currently, Bolsonaro’s pro-gun policies have been overturned by the current leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, starting with the requirement that gun owners must register their weapons with the police. After facing opposition at first, he began to experience some success.
In Brazil’s last gun control program in 2003, citizens were encouraged to surrender their firearms in exchange for a symbolic payment from the government. It was really well attended.
However, the disarmament statute was viewed as an error by Bolsonaro, who is a right wing politician. He was the first presidential candidate in Brazil to run on a pro-gun campaign, echoing features of conservatism. He claimed that “good citizens” have a right to firearms to protect their families and property.
He changed the laws governing the amount of guns that can be owned and who is allowed to access firearms of certain calibers, such submachine guns. He explained that “an armed populace will never be enslaved.”
Instituto Sou da Paz, a non-profit organization that keeps track of public safety, estimates that under Bolsonaro, the number of firearms in civilian hands nearly tripled, to 2.2 million in a nation of 214 million people, though much lower than in the US, and Brazil had no laws that controlled the ownership of guns.
Michele dos Ramos, head of gun regulation unit at the Justice Ministry’s, said, “we had sharp growth in firearm access, including restricted-use weapons.” Before establishing any recommendations to restructure gun and ammunition legislation and regulations, it is important to conduct an assessment on the condition of these weapons.
Lula’s First In Office
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed a law on his first day in office mandating gun owners to register their weapons with the Federal Police, and he extended the initial deadline until May 3. Officers at the Federal Police headquarters in Rio have registered as many as 50 weapons per day. Yet they were cautious.
“There were a lot of concern primarily at the beginning when they arrived here. They believed we were going to confiscate their guns,” Marcelo Daemon, the head of the Rio police’s department overseeing arms control, disclosed. “A lot of fake news circulated on social media and people came here with fear,” Marcelo added.
Before the registration initiated by Lula’s government, the Army collected and retained data on gun ownership for sport shooters, collectors and hunters, known as CACs. Bolsonaro cancelled the requirement for such registrants to undergo the process of submitting documentation, justification and psychological exams to the Federal Police, which, on the other hand limited the force’s knowledge of the total number of firearms in used in self-defense.
Since May 7, 2019, when Bolsonaro made significant changes to gun and ammo availability, data from the Army indicated that, CACs had bought 762,365 guns. However, Instituto Sou da Paz and the Igarape Institute, a second nonprofit organization dedicated to security, estimate that the statistic is missing information about almost 100,000 additional firearms.
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