The mandate was signed yesterday by President Lula da Silva as part of a national security plan. According to the president, “those who have to be armed are the Police and the Armed Forces.” The measure drastically reduces the ownership of guns and ammunition for collectors, hunters and professional shooters. According to the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook, during the Bolsonaro administration the number of weapons in the hands of individuals rose 241%.
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Lula takes a stab at the facilities provided by the previous government for carrying arms. After a week in which international diplomacy was the focus of the Brazilian president’s agenda, Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva rolled up his sleeves and turned his attention to the country’s internal issues.
He did it with the signing of a decree that comes into force this Friday and that aims to reinforce public safety. There have been several violent events that have marked the beginning of the management of the union leader. From murders in schools to an attempted coup, so the signed document came into force quickly, one day after it was promulgated.
We are going to continue fighting for an unarmed country. I am afraid that I have to be armed without the security forces, in a responsible way.
– Lula (@LulaOficial) July 21, 2023
The project seeks to combat violence in the Amazon, combat attacks against educational centers with drastic measures and reinforce penalties for anti-democratic crimes. This was a commitment that ‘Lula’ had made since his election campaign. In his first term, Da Silva carried out a similar disarmament program that took thousands of weapons off the streets.
According to the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook, during the Bolsonaro administration the number of weapons in the hands of individuals rose 241%. When he came to power, there were some 197,390 firearms, two years and a few months later the figure reached 637,818.
In this sense, the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil affirmed that “those who have to be armed are the Police and the Brazilian Armed Forces.” “This country will be returned to the Brazilian people in its normality”, concluded ‘Lula’.
Some of the changes brought by the decree
Among the changes authorized by the head of state is the reduction of weapons and ammunition in the hands of civilians, including collectors of weapons, hunters and shooters. Control of this section will be taken by the Federal Police, withdrawing this prerogative from the Army.
The validity of carrying records will go from ten to three years, while the number of weapons per person will be reduced by half, from four to two. Also the number of ammunition purchasable every twelve months will go from 200 to 50.
A maximum of six guns are registered for hunters, collectors and shooters. While ammunition was limited to a thousand for these categories of carriers. This represents only a fifth of what was allowed under the previous administration.
Those who are dedicated to shooting professionally will have a limit of 4,000 cartridges for each weapon they own. These were reduced to four units allowed per person. An important restriction, taking into account that sport shooters were allowed about 60 weapons with the right to 5,000 ammunition per unit.
In other aspects, greater supervision will fall on the shooting clubs. They may not be open to the public 24 hours either. Their location now has a fundamental requirement: they must be located more than a kilometer away from the schools.
In Brazil, more than one and a half million firearms circulate irregularly, while some 2.9 million are registered. In total there are some 4.4 million artifacts of this type in the South American giant.
with EFE
