All pistols and revolvers must be registered.
A citizen is forbidden to have a gun with ammunition better than .380 (short 9mm) for pistols.
A citizen is forbidden to have rifles and carabines that use any ammunition other than the one allowed for pistols/revolvers.
A citizen is forbidden to have more than 2 pistols/revolvers, 2 rifles and 2 shotguns (only sport shooters and collectors registered in the Army can have more than this).
A citizen is forbidden to buy more than a gun per year.
Only sport shooters belonging to a shooting association/club can restock his ammunition, which can only be bought through the association/club.
If a citizen is caught with an unlicensed gun, it does not matter whether it is locked in a box, he can be jailed for 2 years (4 years if it is a pistol).
The license for transport of guns must be obtained in a police department and it takes a week.
The concealed gun license is very hard to obtain.
The taxes over the gun commerce in Brazil are one of the highest in the world: 81%.
The average wait time for registering a gun is 30 days. In Rio de Janeiro, it is 3 months.
All these controls have created a huge black market. Brazil is one of the fewest places in the world where an illegal gun is cheaper than in the stores: 1/3 of the price for revolvers.
Drug lords have absolutely no problem in obtaining weapons such as AR15, M16, SIG 551, HKG3, AK47, and even tracer bullets (forbidden to the honest citizens).
If anyone still believes in the rigid gun control for honest citizens, Brazil is one of the worst examples: according to an study by the American CDC, Brazil is the second highest in the world ranking of deaths by fire weapons.
Now, take a look at these testimonies from FrugalSquirrel users:
"I just read where the Brazilian people rejected a nationwide referendum to outlaw firearms. It seems that the people know that to give up their weapons is bad news.
What can you tell me about Brazil, especially Rio.
Thanks.
Don’t be fooled by that. It sure looks like a pro gun victory, but the truth is that Brasil has some of the worst gun laws around. Almost everything is banned , except for 22 and other odd ball rounds. Anything equal or bigger to 9mm diameter is banned, so forget about 9mm 38, etc. Only .22 semi autos are legal. It truly is a terrible place to live in. Criminals have no problem obtaining Imbel FALs and big bore guns, but civilians have it bad. You can’t carry or shoot the guns you have, except in shooting ranges, and the laws concerning self defense wont favor you much if you use guns to defend yourself.
Terrible place, with terrible laws.
The only thing they won was the keep having guns at all, which the gov. wanted to ban completely.
It’s a bad place, and Rio is swarming with crime. The natural sights are beautiful, places such as beaches and the hotels are supposed to be high quality, but I would go there.
I have some friends that used to vacation in Brasil all the time, until one day a neighbor complained about the music and they spent almost a week in jail. Now they don’t think that Brasil is that great any more.
Some think Brasil is great, then again those same folks also think Cuba is some sort of paradise…"
"I lived in/around Rio for a few months, and spend over a year in the surrounding areas. I can paint a mostly unpleasant picture. I personally knew two people who were shot and killed (one by police), I saw virtually no private ownership of firearms. Three more people I knew were shot but pulled through. The people I met generally put 'law enforcement' about on par with drug lords, and the former LEO I befriended agreed... I generally kept a low profile and I was only mugged once during my stay. This was all pre-2001...
I love the place, and many of the people. I had many good times in my stay there and met many quality people. But the bottom line is that it is the most violent and lawless place I have ever spent time. The people are generally rather politically blind and believe most anything coming from 'o jornal' (the news).
Anyway, that's my experience."
Now read this:
Brazil murder rate similar to war zone, data shows
55,000 Brazilians dying of homicide per year. Is it any wonder?
Brazil has ~ 190 million people, the highly strict gun control laws and 55 thousand murders per year.
And this:
Brazil launches anti-gun appeal
And yet they say any minuscule reduction in crime is thanks to their gun control initiatives. Disgusting.
As comparison, USA has ~ 300 million, infinitely better gun laws and 30 thousand homicides per year. Although they are not countries with continental dimensions and population such as USA and Brazil, Canada and Swiss have more legal weapons per capita than USA and yet an even lesser number of homicides.
Swiss is a country that even Machiavelli mentioned in his book The Prince (written in the 1500s) as a highly armed country. This is enough to ask whether this has to do with this country not being involved in any war (especially the I and II World Wars) and having the smallest rates of deaths by fire weapons and crimes.
Now back to Brazil: there are places in which the power of the state is weaker (such as in the rural areas of the Northeast region) and where police is insignificant - the police department doesn't even have a vehicle and has to do their diligence by taxi cabs - and where everyone breaks the gun control laws and has their unlicensed guns (some get their first gun at 11 years old).
Nobody shoots at anyone and people try to be very polite to each other (maybe because they bet that the other person is armed so it is wise to avoid getting them angered as much as possible), some of the civilians shoot better than people who belong to shooting associations.
There was a lady who argued for more gun controls because she "could not even cuss other people while driving, since the other drivers could be armed". Now this is their best reason to have more gun control... to be allowed to call other people names and get away with it... seriously!
Stupid laws such as gun controls - and there are not only stupid gun control laws but stupid laws for everything else in Brazil - are what people are used to live with and they have been brought up in an environment where they are encouraged to break the law here and there in order to keep their sanity, to keep their businesses, and, in some cases, to survive. Example: in Rio, people run red lights at night when they can - they fear stopping and take the chance of being assaulted and having their car taken.
Now, I am not saying that most illegal aliens in the US are Brazilians - they are not - or even that most illegal aliens take pleasure in breaking the law - they don't - but you can get the idea that in these other countries the situation is not unlike what happens in Brazil.
My theory is that this is what makes illegal aliens more prone to disrespect laws - they have not been brought up in an environment where there are laws that make sense and where there is this thing called rule of law, they ended up having a somewhat hazy view of the law: "it is to be obeyed only nominally in most of the cases, but should be bent and it should be ok to ignore it in brief moments in order to get going with your business of living".
Well, this can make anyone tired of the complaining. So, to end this post on a higher note, please watch this uplifting video:
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