Brazil's far-right president Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday signed a decree that facilitates the possession of firearms, a flagship promise of his campaign, at the risk of increasing violence in one of the most dangerous countries in the world. "To ensure the right to self-defense, me, as president, I will use this weapon," said the head of state, pointing to the pen with which he signed the decree, during a ceremony at the presidential palace of Planalto, Brasilia. A ministerial source told AFP that the decree came into force upon signature, without having to be approved by Parliament.
A majority of Brazilians are for. This decree introduces amendments easing the "Disarmament Statute" of 2003, which created numerous administrative barriers to the possession of weapons. The president said Tuesday he took the measure because of a referendum in 2005, in which nearly 64 percent of Brazilians rejected a law that included, among other things, a total ban on the sale of arms in Brazil. "Unfortunately, at the time, the government found ways to deprive the population of the right" to arm themselves, said Jair Bolsonaro, referring to the left-wing government of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003- 2010), today in prison for corruption. "The people had decided to buy weapons and ammunition and we can not deprive them of what they wanted at that time," concluded the head of state.
Detention - not wearing - facilitated. In the new decree, the criteria established for a person to justify the need to acquire a weapon have been considerably relaxed. It relates only to the possession of weapons and not the carrying of arms outside the home, even though President Bolsonaro has spoken on several occasions in favor of the latter, particularly for truck drivers, who are regularly victims of armed attacks. The carrying of arms is reserved for the military, the police and the personnel working in the security, public or private.
With a relaxation of the rules on the possession of weapons, "you can be sure that the violence will fall," said the new president last week in an interview with the SBT television channel. The largest country in Latin America, with nearly 210 million inhabitants, is one of the most violent in the world, with 63,880 homicides a year, or 175 per day on average.