RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Teens’ Murder Rates Prompt Ban on Guns

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 31 1999 (IPS) - Brazil will join the small group of countries that prohibit civilian gun sales if Parliament approves a Government bill to be introduced Tuesday, amid fierce opposition by the country’s gun lobby.

The proposed law would restrict the right to carry arms to the military, police, and agents of government-regulated private security companies. It reflects “the will of government and society,” said Jose Gregori, National Secretary of Human Rights.

Public pressure, students murdered by their classmates, children going to school in Sao Paulo carrying guns, as well as statistics proving that most teenagers’ murders are committed using fire arms have all contributed to President Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s decision to back the cause.

According to the bill, owners of weapons will receive 150 reales (88 U,S, dollars) if they turn them in to the authorities. There are approximately three million legally registered guns, and twice that many illegal guns, the government says.

The five gun manufacturers in Brazil, as well as gun sellers, have already made known their objections to the law, on grounds that only honest citizens will be disarmed, not the delinquents who obtain their weapons illegally.

Unemployment in the gun industry resulting from the law’s passage would be minimal because most guns go to export, maintained Gregori. A Ministry of Justice study revealed that 90 percent of industry sales are to foreign buyers. Gun retailers, however, will face harder times.

Polls show that a majority of the public supports the law. In Rio de Janeiro, one of the country’s most violent cities, 60.1 percent of the populace favours gun prohibition and 70.7 percent believes the measure will reduce violence, according to a poll conducted by the newspaper O Globo and the GPP Institute.

Social pressure for disarmament can also be found in numerous publicity campaigns. Student groups and the state government of Sao Paulo have been pushing for gun owners to turn in their weapons for the last few years.

In Rio de Janeiro, the local government and a non-governmental organisation, Viva Rio, launched a campaign two weeks ago called “Put Down That Weapon”, hoping to collect a million signatures in favour of the law to prohibit gun trade in Brazil.

The Brazilian football star, Romario, who was on the 1994 World Cup champion team, has also joined the movement. In addition to speaking out in favour of disarming the public, he has taken to showing off his t-shirt with the campaign’s logo every time he scores a goal for his current Flamengo team.

The state governor of Rio de Janiero, Anthony Garotinho, announced in April that he would propose a local law that would prohibit civilian gun possession. In doing so, he set off protests by gun dealers and a debate on the constitutionality of the measure, given that there is already a national law regulating gun trade.

Even so, the governor of the Federal District (Brasilia), Joaquim Roriz, went ahead and approved a law on May 13 that puts an end to gun sales at the Brazilian capital’s 11 gun retail stores.

The argument that assassins obtain their guns imported through the black market is contradicted by Rio de Janeiro’s under- secretary for Public Safety, Luiz Eduardo Soares, a sociologist who studies violence.

“We have shown that 60 percent of the weapons belonging to criminals were made in Brazil,” he confirmed.

“What’s more, even weapons bought legally end up in criminal hands,” said Rubem Cesar Fernandes, the Viva Rio coordinator.

The movement’s intensification over recent weeks indicates the heavy pressure on Parliamentarians to approve the law. Once the law is passed, Brazil will join the small group of countries that prohibit gun sales, which includes Great Britain and Australia.