Date: Sun Aug 29 03:14:02 1999 From: murphy@MYBLUEHEAVEN.COM (Phil Murphy) Subject: Gun control bill stirs opposition in Brazil To: AZRKBA@asu.edu
http://www.foxnews.com/news/wires2/0827/n_ap_0827_156.sml
By Stan Lehman, Associated Press
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) — The deadly shootings at Columbine High School are still echoing in Brazil, where people are divided over a radical proposal to ban the sale and possession of guns.
The April 20 shootings that left 15 dead in Colorado shocked this nation and sparked a national debate over violence. Gun control advocates submitted a bill to Congress in June, and their support has swelled with recent violence in Atlanta and Los Angeles.
"It's a good law that will reduce the excessive levels of violence in our society,'' said Col. Rui Cesar Melo, commander of the Sao Paulo State police force.
Ironically, the bill also has led to the rise of a previously unknown gun lobby. The National Association of Gun Owners and Retailers, modeled on the U.S. National Rifle Association, is enlisting gun owners and lobbying lawmakers to vote against the bill.
"There's no way I'm going to turn in my gun,'' says Luiz Afonso Santos, a founder of the association, leaning close to be heard over the gunfire at a shooting range in Sao Paulo's posh Pacaembu district. "If I have to, I'll break the law.''
Under the proposed measure, only the armed forces, police and private security personnel could possess a firearm. Gun owners would have 360 days to turn in their weapons and ammunition and would receive $80 for every gun turned in.
Opponents say the law is unconstitutional because it violates citizens' right to self-defense. It also may be unworkable — previous efforts to disarm people in the notoriously violent Maraba district of the eastern Amazon turned up a few rusty pistols and hunting knives.
From the rugged outback to urban slums, Brazilians own an estimated 8 million guns, only 2 million of which are legally registered. Most of the unregistered guns are in the hands of criminals, who buy them on a thriving black market of contraband weapons.
Drug gangs in the hillside shantytowns, or favelas, of Rio de Janeiro are usually more heavily armed than police. Stray bullets from shootouts with police and rival gangs often kill and wound innocent bystanders. Even in upscale neighborhoods like Ipanema and Copacabana, many residents put steel plating over windows facing the hills.
Studies by the Institute for Religious Studies, a Rio de Janeiro-based think tank, show that Brazil has the world's highest rate of killings by firearms.
The latest available figures show that nearly 89 percent of the 46,385 Brazilians murdered in 1995 were killed by firearms. In Japan, which has a gun-control law similar to the one Brazil's government wants, firearms were used in just 4.5 percent of the 752 murders that year.
"Violence is a social epidemic and firearms are the transmitting agent,'' the institute said in a report. "We have learned to combat malaria by eliminating the mosquito. Now we have to learn how to curb violence through the eradication of weapons.''
Brazil's current law stipulates that gun buyers must be over 21, have no criminal record and "prove productive social behavior, effective need (for a weapon) and technical and psychological capacity to handle firearms.'' Obtaining a license takes at least three months and costs about $50. A permit to carry a gun runs an extra $115.
"We can live with the present law,'' said Santos. "But the new legislation means that only bandits and murderers, who ignore legal niceties anyway, will have all the guns.''
The bill has a good chance of passage because the government favors a clampdown on civilian gun ownership. However, the gun lobby may force the total ban proposed in the bill to be watered down.
Beyond the immediate issues, the bill has touched off a debate over broader problems, such as the role of the government and the effectiveness of police. The drug gangs that are blamed for much of the violence rule the shantytowns virtually as private fiefdoms, where police rarely venture.
If Brazilians can't count on police, the bill's opponents say, don't take away their guns.
"Bandits will be less bold and think twice about what they are doing if they know the population is armed,'' said Celso Bastos, a law professor at Sao Paulo's Roman Catholic University. "Yes, I admit it is a step backward to the days of the Old West, but it is what is needed when the State is incapable of guaranteeing people's safety.''
But Lauro dos Santos Lima, a shooting instructor at the Sao Paulo Police Academy, said most people don't know how to handle guns and end up hurting themselves. Justice Ministry statistics show that 96 percent of Brazilians who draw guns in self defense are killed.
Sao Paulo attorney Antonio Carlos Evaristo Fernandes recalls the day 15 years ago when his father drew his .32 caliber revolver when he was surrounded by five holdup men.
"He managed to get off a few shots, but they were much faster and in a few seconds he was dead in front of our house,'' Fernandes said. "People think a gun can protect them, but they're wrong.''