“In the world’s most murderous country, gun control is starting to lose its appeal,” bloomberg.com reports. “Desperate Brazilians are wondering whether they’d be better off armed, given that around 60,000 of their compatriots are killed each year. Polls show support for gun ownership gaining ground. In an election year, politicians are paying attention.” Did you catch that . . .
The story comes to us from billionaire anti-ballistic bully boy Michael Bloomberg’s own financial media. As you can guess, scribe David Biller had to find someone, anyone to oppose the idea. And so he did. But before we got there, there’s this:
One of the candidates leading the field for October’s 2018 presidential election — hardline conservative Jair Bolsonaro — has promised to allow law-abiding citizens to arm themselves, a popular pledge in the nation with by far the most homicides of the entire world.
Even before then, Congress may debate legislation to overturn the “disarmament statute,” a law that effectively bans civilian gun ownership, except in rare circumstances. The proposal would allow Brazilians with clean criminal records who pass psychological and firearm exams to buy up to six weapons.
“Everyday, everywhere you look, the criminal is armed with a high-powered weapon as the citizen tries to hide,” Rogerio Peninha Mendonca, the lawmaker behind the proposal, said in an interview. “What we want is for the citizen to be more capable of defending himself.”
The idea runs counter to recent calls in the U.S. for greater gun control, as well as the global trend towards restricting access to firearms that’s seen Australia, the U.K, Canada, New Zealand and Germany tighten their laws in recent decades.
That’s the windup. Here’s the pitch . . .
The “overwhelming” global tendency is toward more restriction for civilian gun ownership, and studies show that for every 1 percent increase to the number of firearms in circulation in Brazil, the homicide count would rise by 2 percent, according to Robert Muggah, research director at Rio-based security thinktank Instituto Igarape.
“Brazil’s pro-gun politicians are playing with fire. Rather than dismantling existing firearm legislation, they would be much better served by improving and enforcing existing laws,” Muggah said. “There is a very real danger that gun violence will escalate if the disarmament statute is repealed.”
Sure. I believe that. But only because I lost my power of reasoning for a moment. I’m better now. And Brazil will be too, once its citizens regain their right to keep and bear arms.
Which is, at least in this country, an individual right that does not depend on questions of social utility.
Anyway, the real money shot’s in the middle of the piece, from Brazilian lawmaker and former Army captain Jair Bolsonaro (labelled “right wing” by the press): ““Dictatorships only take root after disarmament programs.”
Você acertou. As wikipedia.org reminds us:
The Brazilian military government was the authoritarian military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from April 1, 1964 to March 15, 1985. It began with the 1964 coup d’ état led by the Armed Forces against the administration of the President João Goulart, who had assumed the office after being vice-president, upon the resignation.
But of course it couldn’t happen here, right?
Tauruses for everyone!
Haven’t they suffered enough?
lol
While in Brazil, i talked with a lot of people anout guns and gun ownership.
Many were flabbergasted that i (a lowly citizen) could own guns like the police carry.
Many were interested in gun ownership and wanted tl know the US process of purchase. Then they got mad at their government when they learned our system.
The most effective statement for me in conversations was “when people fear the government, you have tyranny. When the government fears the people, you have liberty”.
It rung true for those who remember the darkest days of the military government.
The US isnt perfect, but its way ahead of 2nd place.
Long Live the Republic. Obrigado
Brazil has every gun control law the antis in this country could ever want and more. It makes no difference.
Restoring the right to self-defense to Brazilians would be a great step forward for the country.
Liberals are the cause of most crimes, by allowing only criminals to have guns.
60,000 a year. At that rate everybody in Brazil will know at least one murder victim. They will get guns or lynch their pols. It’s too personal for them.
All gun control laws do is create victims. That’s all they do and anybody that supports a gun control law is enabling crimes against humanity.
60,000 a year???
But our fuckwit trolls tell us the USA has the highest murder rate in whole world!
Highest in the developed world. Unless you disregard suicides.
I guess Mexico and Brazil do not count as dedeloped.
It’s a tautology, any country with a murder rate higher than the US is not developed.
Only in absolute numbers does Brazil have “the most homicides of the entire world.” In terms of the homicide RATE per 100,000 inhabitants, Brazil is not even in the top ten. It’s number 14 as of 2015.
Just thought this was worth pointing out because the US is number 8 in absolute numbers, but 97 in terms of the rate.
Usa 325m people 10,000 homicides 300m guns
Brazil 200m people 60,000 homicides 15m guns
More like 400+ million guns in the US, and we are still buying them faster than they wear out or are destroyed. Except around the periphery, with small caliber simi-automatic rifles, gun rights have been advancing for more than 30 years. Gun owners here in the US have been winning a culture War with the anti gunners virtually non-stop during that time. It’s nice to see that Brazil is likely to join us in advancing the cause of freedom. The anti gunners here of the United States will of course do their best to down play the success that Brazil will have because that does not fit they’re narrative, but over the next few years it will give those of us who support gun rights and freedom an international place to point to. It will also help people in places where their rights are under attack to have another place to point out, other than the United States. Except for a few aberrations it is clear that socialism and its attendant urge to control the rights of citizens is being pushed back worldwide.
Brazil has a lot more than 15 million guns, you forget the black market. Closer to 50 million Jethro.
Do you have the links for that data? Would be good to have for discussions with others.
What is the gun in the picture?
Looks like a stainless Taurus 58 in .380.
“The proposal would allow Brazilians with clean criminal records who pass psychological and firearm exams to buy up to six weapons.”
So: What six would you choose?
1. Remington 870 with 18” and 24” barrels
2. Any tactical carbine in 5.56 I could get my hands on.
3. A PCC that takes the same mags as my CCW piece.Keltec sub2k?
4. Either a Glock 19/ M&P 2.0c
5. Ruger 10/22
6. A tactical .308 carbine(if available)
Well, technically the “homicide” rate probably will up at least initially. After all justifiable homicide is still homicide. But, not all homicides are murder unless you use Bloomberg stats. Once the criminals get used to the fact that that they no longer have fish-in-a-barrel to victimize, all crime will drop. Although it hard to get the countries that have instituted strict gun control to admit it their total crime rates have not dropped any more than U.S. total crime rates in some cases they have gone up. Per London newspaper,
“Knife crime in London increased by 25% in the year to September 2017”
Must be some of those A R weapons of mass destruction sneaking around wreaking havoc. Has to be because without A R ‘s there is no crime, right ?
It’s always darkly amusing to me to think about the difference between Costa Rica and most other countries in South and Central America.
Yeah, in Costa Rica you have to register the weapon but that’s about it. Of course, unless you’re a citizen of Costa Rica this is a massive PITA, which it’s meant to be. However, once everything is in order and you’re a citizen it’s actually pretty easy.
I walked into a gun shop in San Jose and started asking about when I lived there. Some old dude walks in to pick up a gun that he ordered. Full auto Uzi. Registered? Yup, but for him that’s easy since he’s a citizen. He walks in, pays for it, signs a couple pieces of paper, grabs some 9mm and heads out the door to the range.
This was back in ’03. Dunno if things have changed much since then but I would rather doubt it.
So, you, as a foreigner, *could* have purchased, but it would have to be registered?
Aren’t Brazilian’s limited to puny calibers like 38,380 and 22 even if they can get a legal gat?!? I hope they demand change…not counting on it.
They probably have the enlightened progressive rule followed in France, Mexico, and other places that prohibit “military cartridges” being used by “civilians”.
So no .45ACP or 9mm Parabellum, but .380 or 38 Super is fine.
How close is 38 Super to .357 mag in terminal performance?
If I remember correctly, 38 Super is is almost ballistically identical to 9mm Luger
.38 super is about 300fps faster than 9mm at the muzzle and about 300fps slower than .357 mag with 125 gr bullets per Sperr loading data
“Aren’t Brazilian’s limited to puny calibers like .38, .380 and .22 (…)?”
That is so. Actually the law doesn’t limit by caliber, but by muzzle energy: 407 J for handguns, 1305 J for rifled long guns. For shotguns, the law says that only 12 gauge or smaller, 12 gauge with a barrel length of 24 inches or larger, and calibers smaller than 12 gauge, any barrel length. Full auto is forbidden for any kind of weapon. 9mm (9×19) and 5.56mm are explicitly forbidden because of their use by the military. For one to get a gun (under those restrictions), one must ask nicely a federal police “sheriff” (delegado), and he probably won’t grant your request.
And we are limited to 50 rounds PER YEAR.
All these restrictions, and 61.000 killed every year. Someone forgot to tell the outlaws about these rules.
Something else about Brazil’s gun laws:
“In 2005, a majority of Brazil’s population voted against banning the sale of guns and ammunition to civilians in a referendum. However, the Brazilian Department of Justice (Ministério da Justiça), which performs each individual’s mandatory background check (which is made prior every gun acquisition, and every three years after it is acquired, which allows gun confiscation at the discretion of authorities), have been forbidding almost every citizen from buying guns,[8][9] based on the Executive Order # 5.123, of 07/01/2004.”
So, the Brazilian population voted AGAINST gun bans, but the gov’t went ahead & did it anyway…
“Which is, at least in this country, an individual right that does not depend on questions of social utility.”
What happens here is that the exercise is replaced with government privileges; which are then subject to some form of social utility standard. Licensing, background checks, GFZs, special taxation, and criminal weapons charge enhancements all take the exercise of the right to keep and bear arms and reduce it to the exercise of a government privilege. The mere act of keeping and bearing of arms should not be under the control of government.
In the Ninth Circuit, as well as the Second , Third and Fourth, questions of social utility have a primacy, since it is obvious that the private ownership of guns has no social utility. Therefore, evil dangerous assault weapons may be banned, concealed carry denied, because “public safety” trumps second amendment rights.
It’s a damn shame that Senor Bolsonaro can’t challenge Rick Scott for the Republican Senatorial Primary.
that guy needs to get himself a glock and lose that nickel plated sissy pistol
John Wesley Hardin liked nickel plated guns. So did “Wild” Bill Hickok. Many gunfighters in the Old West did. Those guys didn’t pretend to be operators. They didn’t carry plastic 9mm women guns either. They were true gunfighters. They carried nickel plated heavy steel firearms with wood or ivory grips. You call one of those guys a sissy, and they’re liable to pistol whip the shit out of you with one of those hog legs.
https://truewestmagazine.com/hardins-deadly-tools/
They carried nickel plated guns cause they clean up faster and easier and resist rust better. The black powder in use at the time was nasty, fouling stuff.
Wild Bill’s preferred firearms were a pair of Navy colts in .36 caliber. A 9mm would have been a major step up in power.
Trigger discipline much?
Being Brazilian (despite living in the US for 10+ years now) I can absolutely confirm that people have realized they would be much better off right now if the good guys were also armed… When I used to preach about it 5 years ago everyone thought I was crazy. Also, the Instituto Igarapé cited in the article is known for being pretty much a socialist think tank. Finally, it should be noted that the Brazilian dictatorship, having been instilled by a military coup, did NOT disarm its citizens. During the dicatorship every man was allowed to own two guns to protect his home. Disarmament only came in the early 2000’s when a socialist government was elected.