Good morning! This week, we discuss how the gun debate is getting louder in Brazil’s Congress. A major power plant project scares environmentalists. And the 30 years of the Brazilian real.
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Gun debate getting more space in Congress
A study released today by the Fogo Cruzado Institute, a think tank that debates gun violence and policies, shows that congressional debates around gun regulations are becoming more and more frequent in Brazil. The institute analyzed the records from more than seven decades, including legislatures since 1951.
State of play. The peak of gun discussions in Congress came between 2003 and 2006, when Brazil discussed and passed its Disarmament Statute. One of the act’s proposals, banning the sale of guns in all of Brazil, was rejected by 63 percent of Brazilians in a 2005 referendum. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was serving his first term at the time.
- Gun debates picked up steam after 2015 — coinciding with the rise in popularity of Jair Bolsonaro, who was at the time preparing his...