Brazilians Reject Gun Ban by 2 To 1 Vote

Normally, the US gets the focus whenever gun-related death is the topic of conversation. Compared to the Brazilians, though, the Yanks are pretty second rate when it comes to shooting each other to death. Brazil has 100 million fewer people and 25% more fatal shootings. And it seems the people there like it that way. They just voted down a prohibition on sales of guns and ammo to civilians by a 64-36 margin.

The Brazilians don’t live under the American constitution, which enshrines the right to bear arms in its Second Amendment (and a proper, careful reading would require all gun owners to be members of the National Guard). So, the argument in Brazil was a bit more fact-based and less “what did the Founding Fathers mean?” However, much of the Brazilian “no” camp sounded like the USA’s National Rifle Association. Indeed, much of the information was translated from brochures and such from American English into Brazilian Portuguese.

Without an appeal to Tom Jefferson and Jack Adams (John to those on less familiar terms), the Brazilian “no” crowd argued that Brazilians should protect their right to buy a gun even if they didn’t exercise it. And they pointed out that criminals buy their guns on the streets without the background checks law-abiding citizens undergo. How very Texan of them.

There was a big difference, though, in how the police were portrayed. The Brazilian pro-gun lobby ran directly against the police of the country. Political scientist David Fleischer of the University of Brasilia told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, “They ask the question: ‘Do you feel protected and do you think the government is protecting you?’ and the answer is a violent no.” And the CBC quoted an army officer named Pedro Ricardo (a pseudonym?) as saying “It's immoral for the government to have this vote. They're putting the responsibility on us, but … the way to cut down on violence is to combat the drug trade and patrol our borders.”

The violence in Brazil, like that of its big neighbor to the north, is a legacy of slavery, imperial exploitation, a genuine healthy distrust of authority, and financial inequality. But there is also a huge rural population that is a damn long way from a police station. It is one thing to demand an unarmed population in Rio and Sao Paulo (or Manhattan and Chicago); it’s quite another to make it impossible to get a gun for a trip up the Amazon or into the Rockies. Not every place is as built up as the local strip mall.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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