Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Brazil bans handguns as deaths soar
Nation has a slaying every 12 minutes, president notes

By LARRY ROHTER
THE NEW YORK TIMES

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- No country in the world has a higher rate of homicide by firearms than Brazil, and the toll is highest in large cities like this one. Now, in what gun control advocates describe as a bold but risky social experiment, Brazil has virtually outlawed possession of handguns.

Since just before Christmas, no one in this nation of 175 million except police officers, soldiers, and prison and security guards has been authorized to carry a pistol.

The sale and trade of weapons has been similarly limited: The illegal purchase, possession or furnishing of arms has become a criminal offense with no bail and long prison terms. Most gun owners must hand over their weapons within six months.

"This is an expression of the unanimous will of society to cut the spiral of violence that unsettles us and embarrasses us before humanity," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said when he signed the bill.

Noting that a homicide occurs in Brazil every 12 minutes, he added that "this statute is certainly not the solution to everything, but it is an exceptional step forward."

No one knows how many guns are circulating in this vast nation, which is larger than the 48 contiguous states of the United States and shares a similar history of cowboys and explorers pushing, often violently, to open a rugged frontier.

About 2 million guns are legally registered, but government officials estimate that the number of unregistered weapons may run as high as 20 million, including those of poor peasants who hunt out of necessity.

Under the law, no one who is under 25 or has been convicted of a drug or alcohol offense is permitted to own a gun. To acquire a weapon, an applicant must submit a statement of need -- the rural hunters, for example, can qualify, but the standard of need is much stricter in cities.

The applicant must also prove that he or she has no criminal record and is gainfully employed and then register the weapon with a new centralized federal data bank after paying a $350 annual tax.

But the law contains an unusual feature that worries gun-control advocates in a country where people talk about ambitious laws that are passed but "don't catch on" for lack of enforcement. A national referendum has been scheduled for October 2005, in which voters will be asked whether they want the gun sale restrictions to continue or be revoked.