Private gun registrations skyrocketed under Bolsonaro: report

Shooting range in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: A.Paes/Shutterstock

The number of guns privately owned by Brazilians more than doubled during the Jair Bolsonaro administration, from roughly 1.3 million in 2018 to 2.9 million in 2022. The data was obtained with a Freedom of Information request and analyzed by NGOs Sou da Paz and Igarapé.

Private gun ownership among members of the military, police officers, and firefighters increased by about 16 percent during Mr. Bolsonaro’s term, while the number of guns purchased by private citizens for personal defense jumped by 183 percent. The number of guns among collectors, hunters, or sports-shooters (known by the acronym of CAC) saw the largest increase: 259 percent.

This means that, during the Bolsonaro years, the number of guns owned by civilians surpassed those privately owned by military and police officers.

For Sou da Paz and Igarapé, this is “an immediate effect of the lack of control promoted by the [Bolsonaro administration’s] more than 40 infra-legal acts,” making it easier for people to purchase guns. For example, people with CAC licenses were allowed to buy larger quantities of guns and ammunition.

“This extremely high speed of [gun] purchases is in opposition to the state’s ability to verify these requests properly,” the institutes say, “which directly impacts public safety.”

As The Brazilian Report showed last year, the new rules and frail oversight made it much easier for Brazil’s organized crime gangs to obtain guns through legal channels.

The Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration is working to reverse the Bolsonaro-era boost to guns. Within its first week, the government issued a decree determining that CAC gun permits issued after May 2019 will need to be registered again within 60 days in the Justice Ministry’s system. Furthermore, new CAC licenses will not be issued until there is new regulation on firearms. The decree also reduced from 60 to three the number of guns one person can own.

The increased number of guns was not followed by a proportional increase in violence. The number of homicides dropped in 2019, followed by a slight increase in 2020 and another drop in 2021. However, the proportion of homicides committed by firearm increased.