Brazil Politicians Admit State Has Failed at Protecting Citizens, Seek to 'Copy U.S. Gun Culture'

Congressmen in Brazil, one of the most violent countries in the world, are proposing to dramatically loosen restrictions on personal gun ownership, bringing the country much closer to the American right to bear arms.

The politicians say the measures are necessary to allow embattled citizens the right to defend themselves from criminals armed with illegal weapons. But opponents say the move will only increase the country’s toll of nearly 60,000 murders in 2014.

The draft law, which is set to be voted on by the lower house of congress this month, introduces a right for citizens to own firearms for self-defense or the protection of property. Currently, citizens must apply for a gun permit and justify why they need a gun, meaning that applications can be easily denied.

The bill also reduces the minimum age for the purchase of weapons from 25 to 21, removes a ban on those under criminal investigation owning or carrying weapons and allows citizens to buy nine guns and 600 rounds of ammunition a year.

“Brazil is an extremely violent country and the state has failed to resolve this problem,” the law’s author Laudivio Carvalho of the powerful Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, says in a telephone interview. “The population needs the right to defend themselves, their family and their property as they are the ones being attacked. Ninety percent of assaults are being carried out with illegal weapons.”

The approval of the law by a congressional committee this month is a “confession of bankruptcy,” opponent Alessandro Molon of the Sustainability Network party told a committee hearing into the draft law. “We are saying, ‘thanks to our incompetence, you can defend yourselves and live in a Western because we are inept,’” he added.