Brazil Soundly Votes Down Gun Sales Ban

Brazilian voters on Sunday soundly defeated a nationwide referendum calling for the banning the sale of guns to private citizens. As reported by Day.com (Brazil), with 92 percent of the votes counted, 64 percent opposed the ban, while 36 percent supported it.

The ban, proposed in reaction to Brazil’s gun violence rate of more than 40,000 deaths a year, seemed certain to pass less than two months before the election, with polls showing 81 percent of Brazilians supporting it. Intense prime-time television advertising by pro-gun advocates, suggesting that Brazilian police could not adequately protect an unarmed public, is thought to have turned public opinion around.

“They didn't vote in favor of guns, they voted to protest the government and the lack of a national security policy,” said Antonio Rangel, coordinator of the gun control campaign at the Viva Rio think tank, in this Day.com report. “Two months ago we had 81 percent support for the ban, this shows that less than 20 percent of the population really believes in guns. The rest was protest.”

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