Over the last year there has been an incredible rise on the number of approved permits for gun ownership in Brazil. Now we wonder why this is happening in a country that already has one of the largest murder rates in the World.

First, let's go back to 2003. In a response to the increase in drug-related violence in the 90`s, the country´s congress approved laws that made the process to apply for a gun permit extremely difficult, expensive, time-consuming and bureaucratic. It was required to pay a high fee, have a clean criminal record, submit to a psychological test and to have a “reasonable need” for a gun. At the time it was also required for people to hand over their weapons to the state. Two years later stricter measures were attempted but ended up being failed in a referendum.

Although all this legislation was passed, it was difficult to enforce them among drug cartels, which were able to smuggle guns into the country.

The debate over gun ownership has been a great deal in the past few years and the current President, Jair Bolsonaro has contributed to that. 

Bolsonaro and his sons, who are represented among several important institutions like the Congress and the Senate, have been advocating in favour of an easier access to guns. The President claims that disarmament laws allows access to guns to the “decent citizen” who only want to protect themselves and that “The right to legitimate self-defence cannot continue to be violated!”. According to the New York Times, “Since he eased gun ownership rules in his first weeks in office, the number of applications for permits has gone up sharply.”

As this happens, several peace groups state their concerns about the future with a foreseeable increase in domestic violence and an increase of guns available in the black market.