Brazilian Gun Rights Expand with Executive Order

[Smokepole]

Bolsonaro Expands Brazilian Gun Rights with Executive Order



By John Hayward
Breitbart
May 8th. 2019

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro kept one of his campaign promises on Tuesday by signing an executive order to relax his country’s 2003 firearms law. Among other measures, the order will make it easier for Brazilians to import guns and buy large amounts of ammunition. Rural gun owners will be allowed to use their weapons anywhere on their own property, while sport shooters and hunters will be permitted to transport firearms from home to their shooting clubs or hunting grounds.

“It is an individual right of the one who may want to have a firearm or seek the possession of a firearm,” Bolsonaro said when signing the order.

“Public security starts inside your home,” he said.

[10x25mm]

Donald Trump is not the only President with a refractory legislature. President Bolsonaro's executive order expanding gun rights was just challenged by the Brazilian Senate:

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/ar...e-gun-carrying

Brazil Senate Blocks Bolsonaro Move to Ease Gun Carrying
June 18, 2019, at 8:38 p.m.

BRASILIA (REUTERS) - Brazil's Senate on Tuesday overturned a decree signed last month by right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro that drastically expanded the number of people allowed to carry weapons in public.

Bolsonaro pledged when campaigning for the presidency last year to change the laws to allow more Brazilians to bear arms for self defense. The temporary measure needs Congressional approval to remain on the books, however.

The Senate move still needs to be approved by the lower house which could vote the bill down, upholding the decree with the support of representatives of the gun lobby and farm sector who were instrumental in electing Bolsonaro.

The decree extended the right to carry weapons to lawyers, truck drivers, traffic police, public and private security guards, anyone living in rural areas and even journalists covering crime. It also raised the number of rounds of ammunition a gun owner can buy each year from 50 to 50,000.

"Security in rural areas is very important which is why we widened the right to carry weapons in all your properties," Bolsonaro said on Tuesday at a farming event, where he asked lawmakers to back his decree.

Critics say more guns is the last thing needed in a country believed to have the highest number of murders in the world. Brazil reported 65,600 murders in 2017.

Bolsonaro, a former Army captain turned politician, has argued that criminals are well-armed in Brazil so law-abiding citizens should also have the right to defend themselves.

His decree undermines efforts to reduce the number of guns in Brazilian society by collecting illegal firearms under a disarmament statute enacted in 2003.

Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, the author of the bill passed on Tuesday, said he and other senators had received death threats on social media and by telephone warning them not to overturn the president gun initiative.

Bolsonaro has more support in the Brazilian House, so the Senate's action may prove to be the kind of empty virtue signaling now emanating from the U.S. House of Representatives. Still, it shows the depth of visceral hatred of gun rights by the elites across the world.

[10x25mm]

Bolsonaro is not giving up:

https://news.yahoo.com/brazil-bolson...174603622.html

Brazil's Bolsonaro tries new tactic to loosen gun laws
C.H. Gardiner • Associated Press • June 26, 2019

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — President Jair Bolsonaro has issued several new decrees to loosen Brazil's strict gun laws, moving to rescue a signature campaign promise after the Senate rejected his earlier effort.

The series of edicts issued Tuesday night effectively canceled a May decree that eased access to firearms while at the same time reinstating many of the same controversial provisions that had sparked resistance from lawmakers.

Opposition congressman Marcelo Freixo tweeted that the president is trying to sidestep the legislative process following the defeat of his earlier decree in the Senate.

That decree had been scheduled to be voted on in the lower house of congress. If it had failed to pass there, it would have effectively been dead.

Bolsonaro, a far-right ex-army captain, promised during his winning presidential campaign to give "good citizens" access to guns as a means of dealing with rampant crime.

Critics worry that making guns easier to own could worsen Brazil's high homicide levels. In 2017, 63,880 people were slain in Brazil, according the think-tank Brazilian Public Security Forum, making it the deadliest year in the country's history.

Bruno Langeani from the non-governmental group Sou da Paz ("I am from peace") said the president's turn to new decrees is a last-minute effort to bail out that pledge.

"The president suffered a defeat in the Senate, and things were not looking good in congress. By canceling the decree and issuing new ones, he has effectively canceled the vote which was to take place today," Langeani said Wednesday.

Bolsonaro's May decree extended the types of calibers available to the public, gave prior authorization for a large number of professions to carry firearms in public, including truck drivers, lawyers, and politicians, and increased the quantity of ammunition individuals could purchase in a year.

That decree faced significant political and legal challenges. Bolsonaro released several amendments backing down on some of the more contentious points in a failed attempt to win support in congress.

Critics say the latest decrees still provide extended access to guns for citizens.

Robert Muggah, a security specialist and research director at the Igarapé Institute, said that despite Bolsonaro saying the changes address the concerns raised by opponents, they still retain most of the content of the original.

"This is a controversial political move from the Bolsonaro camp and could further polarize the country. It is also diverting attention away from stalled pension reform, the failure to launch a national security plan, and cuts to the education and environmental budgets," said Muggah.

Of course, the Brazilian deep state hasn't been able to mount a coup d'état against Bolsonaro, yet.