The Brazilian federal government issued a decree in the Official Gazette on December 9 local time, and from January 2021, the tax rate charged on imported revolvers and single chamber pistols will be reduced from the current 20% to 0.
According to local media reports, since taking office in 2019, Jair Bolsonaro has gradually fulfilled his promise in the 2018 presidential election to enable more Brazilians to possess weapons of self-defense.
He signed a temporary decree 15 days after taking office to relax the restrictions on the possession of firearms by Brazilian citizens. On May 7, 2019, Bolsonaro signed an executive decree to ease the import restrictions on firearms and increase the amount of ammunition that the people can buy.
According to the statistics of the Brazilian Federal Police, in the first half of 2020, 74,000 new registered firearms were added in the country, more than half of which were purchased by the general public. In 2019, there were 90,000 firearms registered nationwide in Brazil, compared with 50,000 in 2018.
Brazil’s previous series of measures to relax gun control have caused public controversy. According to the results released by the Brazilian polling agency, 61% of the respondents believe that the possession of firearms should be prohibited.
For every 1% increase in the supply of guns, murder rates will rise by 2%, and the misuse of firearms threatens to further worsen the already-severe social security in the country, which is now quite severe, according to experts.
