President Bolsonaro was elected in October 2018 in Brazil, and was sworn in on January 1, 2019. As promised, he immediately eased gun law conditions in Brazil through Executive action and promised more to come. Anti-gun progressives warned of a bloodbath if Bolsonaro was elected, with homicides increasing above the 59,000 homcides in 2017. Now that some time has elapsed, what was the effect of loosening Brazil's gun ownership rules/laws?
Annual homicides in Brazil:
2017 59,000
2018 51,000
2019 41,635, with many more legal guns on the street, 10,000 lives saved in 1 year
“IN OUR GOVERNMENT HOMICIDES, VIOLENCE AND FALLACIES FALL!” an exultant Bolsonaro wrote on his Twitter account, sharing the G1 news report. “Our government extends a strong embrace to all the security agents of the country. Brazil continues on the right path.”
When translated to homicide rates, the rate dropped 17% in 2018, then 23% more in 2019. The population of Brazil in 2019 was 210 million. The rate of homicides per 100,000 was 19.83. That is less than 2/3 of the homicide rate in 2017, which was 30.8.
Brazil has not had a homicide rate this low since 1995, before the highly restrictive gun law of 1997 was passed.