Brazil contends with more gun ownership – and a rising gun culture

Clad in protective goggles and pink earmuffs, Brenda Provesi looks straight into the camera and gushes about the semi-automatic, .40-caliber rifle she’s cradling in her arms.

“The trigger on this one is really nice,” says Ms. Provesi, who lives in the southern Brazilian city of Navegantes and runs Gunpowder and Blush, a YouTube channel for gun enthusiasts.

She pulls the trigger with a manicured finger, pumping bullets into a pink paper target a few meters away. “It’s a great weapon to start out with – for your wife, your daughter, your girlfriend,” she says.

Not long ago, few Brazilians could lay their hands on firearms like the one Ms. Provesi reviewed. But thanks to dozens of legal changes under the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro, it’s become far easier for civilians to legally buy powerful weapons once reserved for the army or police.

“Before Bolsonaro, people thought anyone with a gun was bad. Things are different now,” says Ms. Provesi.

Private gun ownership in Brazil has tripled to nearly 3 million over the past four years, according to data from Instituto Sou da Paz, a public policy group whose name means “I’m from peace.” About 2,000 new clubs for recreational shooting – with names like “The Bullets” and “American Shooting Club” – have opened across the country.

But Brazil’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is trying to unwind his predecessor’s gun policies, based on his belief that more guns in Brazil will only worsen an already high homicide rate.

In January, just a day after taking office, he signed a temporary decree freezing the sale of heavy weapons and the licensing of new shooting clubs. Now, his government is counting how many guns are in circulation, while mulling taxes on firearms and limiting the arsenals that civilians can own.

Changing course on guns in Brazil could prove challenging for Lula, as the leftist leader is commonly called. Brazil’s nascent gun culture is flourishing, and a political movement has started taking root around gun rights.

The Bolsonaro government “armed our society from an ideological point of view too,” says Ivan Marques, a specialist from the nonprofit Brazilian Public Security Forum. “It’s hard to backtrack from that.”

An American import?

In a country where public support for stringent gun control has long hovered around 70%, Mr. Bolsonaro worked tirelessly to transform Brazil into a place where owning a firearm is a symbol of freedom and security.

“Bolsonaro became the poster child of the gun industry,” says Bruno Langeani, manager of Instituto Sou da Paz.

Access to guns is limited in Brazil, one of the most violent countries in the world. It registered 40,800 homicides in 2022, about three-quarters of which were gun deaths, figures from the Brazilian Public Security Forum show. The per capita rate of violent deaths in Brazil is more than three times higher than in the United States, according to 2020 data.

Unlike the U.S., Brazil does not enshrine gun ownership in its constitution, and anyone who wants to buy a weapon here must go through a rigorous licensing process, which includes a psychological evaluation and a police assessment. Obtaining permission to carry outside the home is even more difficult.

Yet, echoing U.S. gun advocates, Mr. Bolsonaro argued Brazilians should have the right to protect their families from the eye-watering levels of crime here. He insisted that putting more guns in the hands of “good citizens” was the solution. At rallies and speeches, his trademark gesture became a finger gun.

Through a series of presidential orders, Mr. Bolsonaro allowed civilians to purchase assault rifles, doubled the duration of gun licenses to 10 years, and raised the number of firearms sport shooters could legally own from 16 to 60. “I want everyone armed,” Mr. Bolsonaro famously said last year.

This is “part of a political strategy,” says Erika Robb Larkins, a professor at San Diego State University, who researches violence and security in Brazil. “It’s a way to speak to conservative constituents.”

Although the country’s homicide rate remains one of the highest in the world, it has dropped by more than a quarter since 2017, falling to its lowest level in 16 years in 2022.

Experts link that dramatic drop in homicides to a mix of factors, including better policing and peace deals between drug gangs, rather than access to more guns. But Mr. Bolsonaro and his allies were quick to take credit for the decline, citing it as proof that more lenient gun laws curb violence.

That has bolstered Brazil’s pro-gun lobby and will likely make it more difficult for Lula to tighten restrictions, says Alan Fernandes, a former military police officer and a public security expert at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank.

“This weakens the argument against guns,” he says.

Yet there are signs of fresh problems brewing. Last year, femicides hit record levels, with some experts pointing to the rising number of guns in Brazilian homes as a key factor. School violence, which is rare in Brazil, is also on the rise, with the deadliest attacks carried out with firearms.

“We’re only beginning to see the impact of these hundreds of thousands of new weapons that entered into circulation,” says Mr. Langeani. “We are going to feel their impact for generations to come.”

A political force

During his first two terms in office, between 2003 and 2010, Lula took a hard stance against guns. In a sweeping push to disarm the country, he asked Brazilians to turn in their firearms in exchange for a small reward. In 2005, he tried to ban civilians from owning guns. The bill failed, but lawmakers still passed some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world while Lula was in office.

Many working-class Brazilians have historically looked to government authorities to address the violence plaguing their neglected neighborhoods, not to guns.

“In communities living with high levels of urban crime, most people’s experiences with guns are not positive,” says Dr. Larkins. “They’re not necessarily dying to get their hands on a gun.”

But there are signs that Mr. Bolsonaro’s pro-gun rhetoric has had an impact: In a poll following last year’s elections, 37% of Brazilians said greater access to guns could help curb violence, up from 28% in 2021.

As powerful weapons have become accessible to civilians, authorities are having a harder time keeping them away from organized criminal groups. Last year, Rio police caught members of a notorious group with 26 rifles purchased legally by a licensed sports shooter.

“Criminal groups have always been able to get powerful guns,” says Mr. Fernandes. “But it has just become easier and cheaper.”

Ms. Provesi, the YouTube gun enthusiast, fired her first shot when she was 15 years old. Two years later, when she was attacked on the street, she decided that owning a gun was key to her safety.

Brazil’s limits on guns are too rigid, she says. “We have to face the reality of our country,” she says in a telephone interview. “The state is not able to ensure our security. So don’t restrict me from ensuring my own security.”

The political influence of pro-gun groups representing the views of Brazilians like Ms. Provesi is growing, too. In last year’s elections, 23 legislators aligned with pro-gun interests were elected, forming a small but influential block dubbed the “Bullet Lobby.”

Although the sway of these lawmakers is still limited, Mr. Marques, from the Brazilian Public Security Forum, says they could leave a legacy through legislation that slowly chips away at Brazil’s remaining regulations.

“This group is still not strong enough to change the laws around gun control,” says Mr. Marques. “But they could plant very, very dangerous seeds.”