Brazil: Lula tightens gun laws in U-turn from Bolsonaro era

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has reversed his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro's policies that expanded gun ownership in the country, saying only the "police and the army must be well-armed."Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva tightened restrictions on firearms access by decree Friday.

The executive order reverses his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro's regulations that expanded gun ownership in the country.Lula's decree reduces the number of guns civilians can possess for personal safety from four to two, and reduces the allowed ammunition for each gun from 200 rounds to 50.

It asks civilians for documentation to prove their need for guns and bars them from owning 9 mm pistols, restricting them to members of the police and military.'We will continue to fight for fewer weapons,' says Lula

"It's one thing for the regular citizen to have a gun at home for his protection, as a guarantee, because some people think this is safety. Let them have it," Lula said Friday.

"But we cannot allow gun arsenals to be in people's hands," Lula said. "We will continue to fight for fewer weapons in our country. Only the police and the army must be well-armed," he added.

The right to bear arms is not a constitutional guarantee in Brazil as it is in the United States, though Bolsonaro, a far right politician, greatly loosed restrictions during his time in office between 2019 and 2022.

Tens of thousands applied for gun permits during Bolsonaro years

The number of gun permits issued during Bolsonaro's presidency sharply increased to 2.9 million in a country of 214 million, according to Instituto Sou da Paz, a non-profit that monitors public security.

The high numbers of new guns did not lead to a feared rise in violent crime, as the country has one of the world's highest homicide rates.

The number of homicides during Bolsonaro's last year in office, in 2022, was at about 47,500 and roughly even with the 2019 rate, a report released by the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety (FBSP) on Thursday said.

Lula's government is encouraging citizens to sell firearms not allowed under new rules before the end of the year. If people don't, their guns will be confiscated by police. (AP, AFP)