Legal guns in the hands of illegal gangs

In mid-July, Brazil’s Federal Police arrested a 36-year-old member of the sprawling Primeiro Comando do Capital (PCC) organized crime gang at his home in Minas Gerais state. While carrying out searches on the property, the police found seven firearms, including a 5.56-caliber assault rifle. 

However, despite owning a meaty rap sheet and facing convictions for aggravated murder, drug trafficking, and illegal possession of firearms, the target had acquired the weapons legally, with permission from the Brazilian Army.

Earlier in the year, in Rio de Janeiro, a joint operation by the civil police and state prosecutors led to the arrest of Vitor Furtado ‘Bala 40’ Rebollal Lopes, accused of procuring firearms for the Comando Vermelho (CV) gang — the PCC’s bitter rivals. Upon searching his home, in the north zone of Rio de Janeiro, the police encountered a veritable arsenal of weapons — 55 to be exact, including 26 assault rifles.

But Mr. Lopes had also gotten his hands on the guns through the proper legal channels, with permission from the Brazilian Army.

The two men obtained licenses from the military as “collectors, sports shooters, and hunters,” a classification given the snappy Portuguese abbreviation CAC. 

Brazil’s 2003 Disarmament Statute allowed CACs the right to own weapons but established strict rules regarding carry permits and ammunition limits. However, since the beginning of the current government — led by far-right gun advocate Jair Bolsonaro — said regulations have become looser and looser, often causing lethal weapons to fall into the wrong hands.

According to news website Jota, the Bolsonaro government has issued 36 measures to alter Brazil’s gun laws since January 2019. In the case of CACs, these changes have...