U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro revokes order easing gun controls,” Agence France-Presse reports. “Jair Bolsonaro announced the decree in May, enabling a wide range of professions, including truckers, politicians, hunters and even some journalists, to carry weapons.”
So why is he pulling back?
The Supreme Court wants to weigh in on constitutionality. It ought to be a slam dunk for them because the only place that document mentions “weapons” is under “Fundamental Rights and Guarantees,” where it says you can’t have any at public meetings. The good news is, if you’re poor, you have a right to a free death certificate.
Considering Brazil’s restrictive gun laws, anything would be an improvement. The decree the court is finding so unconstitutional would have included:
“Permission for the rural gun-owner with legal possession of a firearm to use the weapon within the perimeter of their own property; Breaking of the monopoly on arms imports in Brazil; Permission for collectors, sport shooters and hunters (CSCs) to be able to travel between home and shooting site with the firearm and its ammunition; Armed Forces Veterans with ten years or more of experience will be entitled to bear firearms; The right to purchase up to 50 cartridges per year will go up to one thousand cartridges per year.”
That was evidently too much for the – how do you say “swamp” in Portuguese?
“[I]t faced a strong opposition, even from governors in states with high rates of violence who argued the order failed to improve security,” the article notes. Sure it did.
And in lieu of real reforms,” Bolsonaro instead published three new decrees that appeared to exclude the most controversial points of the original order, but few details were available.”
Now, per an update in The Rio Times, “the administration realized that the best way to proceed would be to submit a new bill to render the carrying and possession of weapons more flexible.”
There’s a term with plenty of leeway.
As for failing to improve security, those enjoying a monopoly of violence who have failed to improve it themselves would say that. Understand that Brazil is a “commonsense gun safety law” paradise, offering everything our domestic gun-grabbers say they want and then some. So naturally, per The New York Times:
“Brazil has beat its own macabre record for homicides: 63,880 people were murdered across the country in 2017, up 3 percent from the year before, according to a new study.”
It did drop a bit in 2018, but that can’t be attributed to any new “gun laws,” although the powers that be and their hand-wringing useful idiots would have everyone believe that allowing good people who aren’t predators the means of defense will somehow cause murderous chaos to break out — as if it hasn’t already. They also have no answer for why Brazil has an intentional homicide rate of 29.53/100,000, while the United States, where it’s supposedly easier to get a gun than fresh vegetables, comes in at 5.35.
Anybody care to guess what that rate would be if we excluded Democrat-controlled urban areas? How about if we distilled it even further, and limited the population to the 5+ million members of the NRA?
Anybody get the feeling that maybe it’s not the guns that are the problem?
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
btw: Pântano is Portuguese for Swamp.
Never mind the swamp — Brazil has the biggest jungle in the world!
Bolsonaro: Portuguese for COWARD!
Hey, he issued the orders to loosen the crazy antigun laws. But it seems he has learnt that he is not REALLY the one in charge. My bet is that it was “suggested” something along the lines of “if you want to complete your first term alive you WILL rescind those orders”. He will continue to try and do what he can. but just like Trump on immigration, the ones who REALLY run da joint have other ideas, and “ways” to make their own happen. You cannot write him off as a coward.. he’s taken it a bazillion miles farther… Read more »
More like a “Brazillian miles ….”
“It faced a strong opposition, even from governors in states with high rates of violence who argued the order failed to improve security,” I’m sure that’s correct – it being South America, does anyone think someone gets to be governor in a crime-ridden state WITHOUT the support of organized crime? The only “security” they’re concerned with is the security of the gangs, smugglers, robbers, etc., and that is best accomplished by their victim disarmament policies.
Latin/South America is and always has been in turmoil and mired in corruption. When the Spanish and Portuguese first conquered it with the strong-armed backing of the Church and the brutal forces employed by the regimes, it was only about getting gold and slaves. Unlike the English who colonized North America, which was about land and settlements. The Spanish and Portuguese did not bring wives and families with them, but were intent on exploiting the natives for quick gain. The French in North America took a similar tact with fur trapping, but again did not bring families to settle the… Read more »
If it was genetic we would have the same problem in the United States with the Portuguese and Spanish culture which we in fact do not.
We do have that problem with two “genetic” populations, want to guess which ones? Latin American (hispanic), and negro! Both bring the same unstability to ALL cultures! When you hear about gang violence, it’s not “white” gangs, it is “black” and “hispanic” gangs. Of course now we have muslimes invading the inner cities and displacing the blacks and hispanics!
To restore freedom once taken away requires bloodshed. Thus it has been thru history
I guess it was too good to be true for Brazilians. A shame.
(Ron #1)
Those who demand complete disarmament are aghast at the possibility that their lies would be exposed, should the extremely restrictive gun laws of Brazil be repealed. They envision a world where only they and their hired security are unrestricted gun owners.
Please ignore the statistical history of those municipalities and states with restrictive gun laws.
24and7, the ones that want those rights restored are the ones that march in the streets without the violence, like Sunday June 30th. The ones that don’t want the right they already have restored, are the ones that are illegally armed and are violent, the gangs and criminals.
That is so they can continue to gather illicit cash which they pass off to the politicians – now just how hard is that to figure out? Arm the populace and crime goes down because the bad guys are afraid of getting blown away – Duterte has it.
Crime doesn’t go down because “the bad guys are afraid of getting blown away”, it is because they ARE getting blown away – LESS criminals means less crime!
I live part of the year in Brazil and am fluent in Portuguese. The easing of gun restrictions in Brazil should be a slow, controlled process over a 20 year period. I believe even President Bolsanaro is starting to understand that the population is so unfamiliar with the proper usage and maintenance of firearms is so foreign to them that a traumatic change will do more damage than good. Regarding the high murder rates in the non-criminal populations: I believe it is principally due to the emotional outbursts and loss of control exhibited by most children… and that is what… Read more »
The only issue I take with your posting is the part about taking 20 years to reverse gun controls as forced upon the people.
A plan can be implemented into law whereby all said controls are ordered lifted, (educational and firearm training opportunities initiated, (fundamentals, cleaning, storage, etc)), with a time frame more realistic, releasing the controls in an orderly fashion whereby, as you say (paraphrasing), cultural shock is then not the norm.
Such a national initiative could be accomplished within a year or so, not multiple decades.
@John Dunlap, I concur with your time assessment. It could take as little as one S. Ct. decision.
Indeed Wild Bill
I think your description as being “childlike”, should be changed to “feral” or “primitive”. Many of these third world nation populations have a primitive mentality, they don’t adapt to a civilized lifestyle very well. I spent 20+ years in Special Forces and worked in 40 different countries, and of those countries, those in the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central. and South America were all of the same primitive/feral mentality. The slightest thing would set them off into fits of rage, there was seldom any civility in an argument, they would immediately gang up on one or two individuals,… Read more »
Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait forever.
— LORD THOMAS MACAULAY
As violent as the citizens of Brazil can be, maybe they should riot until they get their gun rights…