Man kills at least three in two school shootings in Espírito Santo

At least three people died, and 11 were injured on Friday after a man attacked two schools in Aracruz, a city in the northern part of Espírito Santo, a southeastern Brazilian state.

The first target was a public school. The gunman broke the schoolgate’s lock at around 10 am and walked around the halls shooting. Eleven people were injured. He also stormed the teachers’ lounge and killed two teachers. A video shows the moment when the shooter entered one of the schools (viewer discretion advised).

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The attacker then went to a private school on the same street, where he killed a teenage sixth-grade student and injured two others.

The police suspect that the criminal is a young man who studies at the public school, but his identity has not yet been confirmed. He was hooded and in camouflage clothing during the attack.

President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva lamented the incident, which he called an “absurd tragedy.” Espírito Santo Governor Renato Casagrande canceled appointments and flew to Aracruz. “All our security forces are committed,” he said in a video posted on social media.

Since September, Brazil has witnessed three other cases of school shooters. There have been at least eight other school shootings over the past decade. Although the numbers pale in comparison to U.S. figures, school shootings have become more present in Latin America’s largest nation.

Experts see a connection between increased violence figures and the spike in new registered weapons since President Jair Bolsonaro took office and loosened Brazil’s gun control rules. The lack of enforcement of current gun possession rules also play a major role.

A recent report by the Igarapé and Sou da Paz Institutes, two NGOs, shows that the number of guns registered in the name of collectors, sports shooters, and hunters (CACs), has grown by 187 percent since 2019.

CAC guns jumped from 350,600 in December 2018, before the Bolsonaro presidency started, and topped the 1 million mark in July. As The Brazilian Report showed back in August, regulatory confusion and frail oversight have made it much easier for Brazil’s organized crime gangs to obtain guns through proper legal channels.

A recent poll by Quaest shows that Brazilians feel less safe about guns. That sentiment is prevalent especially among female voters. President-elect Lula has promised to revoke many of the regulations on gun control issued by Mr. Bolsonaro.