Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced that he signed an executive order on Friday tightening gun laws, stating that only the police and army should be well-armed. The aim of the executive order is to slow Brazil’s rise in civilian gun ownership, reversing the policies of his right-wing predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula intends to reduce the number of guns civilians can possess for personal use from 4 to 2, and the ammunition for each gun in their possession is to be reduced from 200 to 50. The full executive order with more details about the gun control policies has not been made publicly available, but local news has reported that there will be restrictions certain calibers, a “buyback” program to remove certain guns out of public circulation and other new restrictions. The new policy also decreases the duration of a gun permit from 10 years to 3-5 years depending on the holder.
Lula’s policies comes after several school shootings and aims to confront stark gun violence in the county. The new plan is a complete shift from Lula’s predecessor, whose “lax” policies Lula cites as a major contributory factor in high homicide rates. Although there is no constitutional right to arms in Brazil, Bolsonaro loosened the rules on gun possession and ammunition. The anti-violence NGO Instituto Sou da Paz held Bolsonaro’s government responsible for the new weapons in circulation, suggesting that the “miscontrolled” gun policy made it easier and cheaper for criminals to access weapons and ammunition.