Brazil’s academic research community overwhelmingly predicts new measures will lead to more violence in Brazil — a country with around 43,000 gun deaths per year. But in the Bolsonaro era, their arguments are losing to a political bloc that is resolutely opposed to empirical research and that takes many of its cues from pro-gun campaigners in the United States.
In Brazil, where the homicide rate is five times higher than in the United States, politicians are debating a law to make it easier for residents, including convicted criminals, to buy guns. A group of conservative lawmakers wants to allow Brazilians to buy up to nine guns a year.