Brazil’s recently elected left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is pushing new gun control regulations on the country's gun owners, requiring all of them to register each of their firearms with the police.

 Edited by| Hugh Gey

South America section -  CJ journalist

Brasilia - May, 4, 2023

   The massive gun registration program comes after his predecessor, former President Jair Bolsonaro, ran his campaign on a pro-gun platform and, once in office, rolled back regulations on private gun ownership. He also changed the rules for how much ammunition a person could own and eased access to restricted-caliber guns.

Bolsonaro also repeatedly claimed that "an armed populace will never be enslaved," 

Now, Lula is working to unravel Bolsonaro’s pro-gun policies.

The government has said in-person registration could help determine precisely how many guns are in the country and potentially how many are no longer with their original owners or may have fallen into criminal hands.

On Jan. 1, which was Lula’s first day in office, he issued a decree requiring gun owners to register their weapons with the Federal Police. The original deadline was delayed until May 3.

The decree stated guns not registered by the deadline can be seized.

Gun owners who failed to register their firearms with the Federal Police could also find themselves in legal jeopardy, should they be found with an unregistered weapon.

The registration, although met with hesitation, has prompted compliance. Officers at Rio’s Federal Police headquarters said as many as 50 people per day have registered their guns. Many have done so begrudgingly.

Marcelo Daemon, the head of the Rio police’s department overseeing arms control, told there was "a lot of concern primarily at the beginning when they arrived here."

"They believed we were going to confiscate their guns," he continued.

Some politicians have also contributed to this reluctance.

The number of privately-owned guns nearly tripled under Bolsonaro, according to the Instituto Sou da Paz, a public security non-profit.

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