Ban on guns national referendum defeated
Brazilians went to the polls yesterday (10/24/2005) in order to vote
for or against the passage of a gun ban law. Although in fact quite lax
(e.g. existing gun owners could continue to own guns, but access to
bullets would be restricted; one could also become a member of a gun
“club”/shooting range, etc.) the proposal was soundly defeated.
Two years ago, when the legislation proposing the referendum passed in Congress,
three-quarters of Brazilians favour banning the sale of guns
Guns in Brazil | Disarming | Economist.com
The results? 59 million voters (64%) casted a “”no” vote? while only? 33 million voted “yes”.
Some say the defeat is linked tho the decline in support for Lula’s
government after the long batch of corruption scandals. There is no
reliable survey data to support this fact. What we know is that voting
in the last presidential election is not significantly correlated with
the gun ban results at the state level.
On the other hand, the vote for the ban was weaker at the upper
income and education levels, which were also are the most critical of
Lula administration. As this datafolha poll
shows, at the lowest income level, 55% answered they would vote “No” in
the referendum, while 67% answered similarly at the higher income
levels.
The gun ban was never a policy intended to stop criminals, but
rather to help diminish the staggering rate of futile homicides that
happen in Brazil. Fortunately, local policy experiences (such as the
decline in homicides in Diadema, Sao Paulo) show that much can be done even without the ban. Let’s hope the local governments across the country are up to task.