Brazil gun control

[OARNGESI]

tonight I was watching bbc and they did a quick story on a presidential candidate in Brazil. One of his plans was to reduce crime and corruption by loosening gun control. Has that ever happened will this have a positive effect world wide?

 

[Telekinesis]

I believe the Czech Republic did something similar after the fall of the Soviet Union - and it's now (to my knowledge) one of the few European countries that has reasonably widespread concealed carry.

While this would be a good move for Brazil, I doubt it will have much, if any, effect on other countries.

 

[OARNGESI]

Well nothing else if it reduces the crime rate at all it can stand as a example that disarming the world doesn’t always do anything

 

[LRDGCO]

It is unlikely in Brazil.

Brazil has been under the control of Socialists for nearly 20 years and in severe political instability for about the last four. President Bolsonaro, touted by the Leftist media as the “Trump of the Tropics” is really only “rightist” on the Brazilian political spectrum. He did however run in part on a “law and order” platform.

Loosening restrictions on firearms ownership will be popular with his base but substantial income inequality, vast, baked-in government corruption, decades of bureaucratic hindrance to opportunity, wide-scale lawlessness and poor police enforcement corruption mean that Brazil has a socio-economic dysfunction that will take insuperable economic and political change to address. Brazil’s law and orde problem is symptomatic of its wider issues. Urban and suburban middle class supporters of Bolsonaro will appreciate more firearms freedom but it will not solve endemic crime. It’s too widespread and it’s not petty theft and burglary.

 

[Curator]

Several years ago, Brazil had a nation-wide referendum to determine if their "constitutional" right to own firearms should continue. The vote was something like 60-40 in favor of keeping their "right." Unfortunately, that right has been difficult to access even for those Brazilians with money and connections. Firearms ownership is controlled by the military as is ammunition. While it is possible to get a permit for a shotgun or a .22 rim fire rifle if you have a country estate, the only center-fire rifle allowed for civilian ownership is the ,44-40 Winchester. Handguns are severely restricted and only available to high-level private security forces and the police. Nonetheless, drug dealers, criminal gangs and motorcycle bandits all have guns, including submachine guns. Brazilians with enough money lived in gated and walled compounds with paid, armed security. LRDGCO is right on with his post!

The entire country, its public institutions, and legal system is FUBAR! Bolsonaro has his work cut out for him, but I wish him success. The Brazilian people are wonderful, productive, happy people, They deserve better than what their governments have done to them.

 

[Swifty Morgan]

I dated a Brazilian for a while. She told me how chaotic Brazil was. She couldn't mail anything to people there, because the people at the post office opened the packages and took whatever they wanted. Her uncle and aunt had to pay a man to sit in front of their house with a shotgun all day because jealous criminals would otherwise come in and do as they pleased. They had to get rid of their nice cars because the poor in Rio were so jealous, they would tear up any parked car that looked expensive.

The problem with screwed-up countries isn't bad luck or circumstances. It's the people who live in them. You can't have American prosperity and peace with Brazilian culture.

Based on what I've heard, concealed carry is long overdue down there. It beats the current system of having the cops intimidate the poor by murdering them.

I don't think there is any real hope for Brazil, however.

 

[Kendahl]

Crime videos from Brazil appear frequently on Active Self Protection. Watching them gives me the impression that, when police observe a violent crime in progress, they start shooting immediately without trying to arrest the criminal first.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

In the mid 80's I spent some time in and around Brasil and was in a couple of the cities. It was not the safest, or stable, country in those days and Rio was probably the worst place of them all. Locals back then cautioned us on displaying any signs of "wealth" and cautioned us to not give the begging children too much as our generosity might get the kid hurt or worse.
While in Belem in 84 the best exchange rate for dollars was the agent/facilitator that the company had engaged. His office was in a walled and guarded compound and the office had a couple shotguns in handy places.
An "interesting" country back in those days...

 

[brutus51]

I think LRDGCO may be confusing Brasil with Chicago.