"Art Imitates Life in Rio"

Police hunted through the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro on Saturday to try to recover nearly 100 fake guns they fear could be used in real robberies...

The guns were being used for a movie called Tropa de Elite about special units working to contain drug traffic in Rio de Janeiro's shantytowns.

In other words, fake guns were stolen from a fake activity memorializing a fake government program...

This isn't the first time we've visited Brazil here at WarOnGuns...

Also see:

"Brazil Nuts" (GUNS Magazine)
"Blame it on Rio"
"Death Mounts in Rio's War on Crime"
"Brazil's Police 'Execute Thousands' For Peace"

[Via Cousin G]

Brazil Nuts

“People here fear the police and their guns more than they do the (drug) dealers,” Rocinha, Brazil, slum dweller Denise do Espirito Santo told The Washington Post about the national referendum to ban private gun ownership.

"Brazil Nuts," my Rights Watch column for the June 2006 issue of GUNS Magazine, is now online.

Shameless Plug: Brazil Nuts

"People here fear the police and their guns more than they do the [drug] dealers," Rocinha, Brazil, slum dweller Denise do Espirito Santo told The Washington Post about the national referendum to ban private gun ownership.

"Brazil Nuts" is my Rights Watch column for the June issue of GUNS Magazine, on sale now at non-seedy newsstands throughout the Republic.

BONUS: See page 100 to find out how you can win a .45 ACP Para-Ordnance SSP-SE1.

Or Lack Thereof

A comment left under my El Salvador article is illustrative:

Get the Hell Outta Here!
"The pattern could be repeated in Brazil, or Mexico, or “murder capital” Honduras"
Brazil? Check. Mexico? Check. Honduras? Eh ehhhhhhhh. Honduras has LAX gun laws.
You appear to think having the highest murder rate in the world must mean you have tight gun control, regardless of what the gun laws (or lack of them in Honduras' case) actually are. The sooner you guys see past this the more we might move on and find workable, long-term solutions.

"Lax"? "lack of them in Honduras' case"?

From GunPolicy.org:

"Guiding gun control legislation in Honduras includes the Act on the Control of Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materials (Decree 30 of 2000)

Guns in Honduras are regulated by the Ministry of Defence and the Preventive Police

In Honduras, only licensed gun owners may lawfully acquire, possess or transfer a firearm or ammunition

In Honduras gun owners must re-apply and re-qualify for their firearm licence every four years

In Honduras, authorities maintain a record of individual civilians licensed to acquire, possess, sell or transfer a firearm or ammunition

Licensed firearm owners in Honduras are permitted to possess up to five firearm

In Honduras, the law requires that a record of the acquisition, possession and transfer of each privately held firearm be retained in an official register

Authorities in Honduras are known to have implemented voluntary firearm surrender schemes, and/or weapon seizure programmes in order to reduce the number of illicit firearms in circulation

As a member of the Central American Integration System (SICA), Honduras is party to the 2007 Central American Programme on Small Arms Control and the Code of Conduct of Central American States on the Transfer of Arms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Material

On 14 November 1997, as a member of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Honduras adopted the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Explosives, Ammunition and Other Related Materials (CIFTA), a legally binding multilateral treaty of which the OAS is depository. The CIFTA Convention has since been signed and ratified  by Honduras

The Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, a diplomatic initiative aimed at addressing the interrelations between armed violence and development, was signed in 2006  by Honduras.

The United Nations Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition has been signed and ratified  by Honduras

On 21 July 2001, Honduras committed to a consensus decision of the United Nations to adopt, support and implement the UN Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects"

But wait, as Billy Mays used to say, there's more!

Under Article 8 of Title II, Chapter I of the Act on the Control of Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materials, automatic weapons of any kind are forbidden in Honduras, as well as silencers and high-precision guns, such as sniper rifles.

in 2003, the government passed a law banning several types of military-issue assault rifles from private possession. Legislative Power Decree 101-2003 gave a 90-day grace period to surrender all weapons prohibited under Article 8, along with weapons described in the new law, without fear of criminal or civil prosecution and provided an incentive of 1,000 lempiras (US$52.92) per weapon surrendered.

Under Decree Number 69-2007, signed into law on June 29, 2007, private citizens were restricted to register only up to five firearms and are no longer permitted to carry their firearms in public unless they are being transported and in the proper manner.

Additionally, firearms cannot be carry while on a motorcycle unless the bearer is a law enforcement officer.

The legal carry of a firearm by his owner, either apparent or openly, is only allowed in the spaces of private property such as homes, businesses, workshops, ranches, farms and similar only by their owners. It is also permitted to openly carry to employees performing duties of surveillance and security in public and private businesses, industrial, of service, agricultural, and private security, and strictly in the assigned places and time of employment, in compliance with the requirements of identification, use of uniforms, and other required by this or other law.

In regards to the transport of firearms, Article 27A, third paragraph, explains that firearms can be transported on the streets, in public spaces or areas, public transportation and private vehicles when:

...the weapon carried by his owner is kept or contained in a case or container that does that permit its immediate use... and,

...should be kept on the glove compartment or visible storage areas in the vehicle.

In regards to openly carrying firearms in public, Article 27A, fourth paragraph, states:

At no time is permitted to openly carry weapons on the streets, public areas, public transportation vehicles, public institutions or commercial establishments, [of] industrial, of service, recreational, and any other space where people gather, except under the circumstances described on the first paragraph.

In regards to bringing firearms to Honduras, Article 30 makes the possession of a firearm while in transit through Honduras illegal and requires visitors and tourists who will engage in hunting and shooting sport activities to register and request temporary import permits with the Ministry of Security prior to traveling to Honduras.

I could go on, but the point has been made.

Aren't those the "workable long-term solutions" we're told are needed here?

If that’s your starting point for “lax” and “lack of,” why would I want to “move on” with you on anything?

About the only thing I agree with you on is your screen name.

Brazil school shooting gives further proof ‘gun control’ does not work

We’re further told that it’s “virtually impossible to obtain a carry permit,” and that a tax must be paid every three years to own a gun legally. So naturally, nine of the estimated 17 million guns in Brazil are unregistered. [More]

Today's Gun Rights Examiner commentary looks at...how do you say "Sarah Brady Paradise" in Portuguese?

Return I Will to Old Brazil

How America Created a Gun-Happy Gangster’s Paradise in Brazil [More]

Same as it ever was...

Maybe if the violence monopolists weren't set on keeping the people from being able to protect themselves...

This is just an influence job to throw out the reformer and put the gun-grabbing commie back in power.

[Via bondmen]

Set on Stun

Perhaps more stunningly, about a third of them occurred in two countries: Brazil and the United States. [More]

Perhaps even more stunning than that is Brazil's gun laws are "categorised as restrictive" with "private possession of handguns (pistols and revolvers) ... prohibited, with only narrow exemptions..."

So what's your point, PopSi?  Except to be agenda-driven douches? Again.

That ought to please your masters from the same parent conglomerate that owns Field & Stream...

[Via Roger J]

A Trained Policewoman

So much for a man will just take a gun away from a woman and use it against her, typically made by zealots who don't know but somehow believe... [More]

In comments, we learn the incident took place in Brazil a while back and the woman was a police officer, which means the option for an "ordinary citizen" to respond in force is limited because:

In Brazil, private possession of handguns (pistols and revolvers) is prohibited,¹²⁵ with only narrow exemptions^{129 130 126 127 128 38}

Glomming onto the "trained policewoman" meme, resident male herbivores quickly fall into "Only One" subservience, with not a one of them being able to justify their assertions by citing police range qualification requirements (how often, how many shots, score, retries, like we talked about here). One, not making the point he thinks he's making asserts:

"I am a gun owner and bet I would freeze in a situation like this or get my kid out of there in a flash."

In other words, if you're certain of that, you're admitting to being an untrained gun owner, which makes you an irresponsible gun owner, which makes fair the question why are you a gun owner, especially if you have children?  You're saying you have a gun but if your kids are ever endangered by an aggressor you "bet" your reaction would be to "freeze" and you would be useless to them as a father and protector?

Hey, your words, buddy, not mine.

Yeah, I understand no one knows how they will really act until they find themselves facing the beast, which makes anticipating and training for that eventuality a responsibility that goes with the right.

"She's a trained policewoman" is just a cop-out. And considering the level of training most go through, a pretty inexcusable one at that.

Oh, look: Another trained policewoman!  Who thinks she'll protect your kids?

[Via Jess]

Brazil's Police 'Execute Thousands' For Peace

Hundreds, possibly thousands of people are shot by police every year in Brazil, a BBC investigation has found.

Yet ten Nobel Peace Laureates supported the Brazilian gun ban referendum. And here's another Nobel Prize for Peace and Literature nominee who thinks people should disarm.

What Do You Target on a Blob?

The Very Definition of Tyranny: The Modern Administrative State [More]

And best of all no one can be held accountable!

You'll either love "Brazil" and consider it genius or scratch your head after a few minutes and go "WTF?"

I'm in the former camp and even think Robert DeNiro did a good job -- and one he should have learned from.

[Via bondmen]

Those Who Cannot Learn from the Past

Lula 2022? Brazil poised for sensational political comeback [More]

Yeah, reinstate a criminal communist gun-grabber. But I repeat myself. And again.

What could go wrong?

Criminal Government Negligence

The woman who was arrested in Falmouth on Feb. 15 for allegedly assaulting a 23-year-old Mashpee man wearing a MAGA hat was again arrested Monday, this time by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as an illegal immigrant from Brazil who has been living illegally in the U.S. since overstaying a tourist visa in 1994. [More]

How does it help "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" to allow this ingrate to remain in this country another moment?

More to the point and same question, although this time for those tasked with overseeing visas...

25 years and she'd still be flouting if she hadn't gotten drunk and violent? And she's hardly an exception to the rule?  Think anybody will be held accountable...?

[Via Mack H]

Brazil to End Restrictions on Gun Ownership

Not really, but it's a good first step. [More]

Naturally, the totalitarian lobby is aghast.

[Via Mike H]

Not Following the Narrative

Bolsonaro's Brazil, More Legal Guns, Homicide Rates Down Precipitously [More]

That must be why the major media is tripping all over each other to get this story out.

What, they're not?

[H/T JPFO]

It Rarely Gets More 'Commonsense' Than This

CHURCH BLOODBATH Gunman ‘storms Brazil cathedral during mass killing four before turning gun himself’ [More]

But...but...but...

If At First You Don't Succeed...

...sue. [Read]

Lot'ta leftist snouts in that trough...

Don't they realize what could happen if a southern bluefin tuna or a Spix's macaw swallowed one of these...?  And let's not even get into the environmental impact of producing these things, from tapping trees and exploiting indigenous labor in Brazil or Southeast Asia, to creating molds and manufacturing equipment, to production operations (say, have you seen some of the stuff that requires, like sulfur and ammonia and "PAN bad actor" chemicals like zinc oxide they use for vulcanizing agents?) all the way to clogging sewer systems after disposal...

Besides, if they're going to pass out promotional swag, I'd much rather have a Center for Biological Diversity gorilla hand ashtray for those cigars I get that are probably rolled from tobacco grown on slashed and burned rainforest land...

Wave of violence sweeps over 'Alpha World City' in spite of restrictive gun laws

The fact is, Brazil could be looked at as a laboratory of sorts to help determine the effectiveness of citizen disarmament proposals being made for the United States under the guise of “common sense” measures that promise to reduce the violence. [More]

Today's Gun Rights Examiner report notes a failed experiment some are determined to keep repeating--with us as the lab rats.

This Dud's for You?

Note on InBev's bid to take over Anheuser-Busch...

You knew that Ambev (InBev group, on Brazil) was a major donor campaign to prevent the Brazilian citizen possessing arms and ammunition?

We shall see what develops, and if it results in any policy changes.

I'm a Beck's Dark man, myself, although there is something more than a little creepy about advertising that you comply with the Reinheitsgebot, a German Purity Law, albeit one from 1516. That, of course, is before they knew about microscopic organisms, so I can only assume it referred to how many rats could be pickled in the barrel and still get a pass...

[Via John R]

An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

Brazil has been swept with a rash of violence as gangs react to new President Jair Bolsonaro's crackdown on crime - which includes military takeovers of Brazilian cities and shoot-to-kill orders carried out by teams of sharpshooters.  [More]

Sounds like a plan. I'll reserve judgment on concerns until I see how the pledge to ease up on infringements goes.

[Via bondmen]

Coming Soon to a Political Rally Near You

Brazil's far-right presidential candidate survives life-saving surgery after being stabbed by 'socialist' attacker who said he was acting on 'a mission from God' during rally [More]

I guess that's one way to enable a "Blue Wave."

The foot soldiers are out there, you know.