Brazil’s President-Elect to Decree Protections on Citizens’ Right to Own Guns

Brazil’s President-Elect Jair M. Bolsonaro noted on Saturday his plans to “decree” protections on citizens’ right to own guns.

He tweeted, “By decree we intend to guarantee the POSSE of firearm for the citizen without criminal antecedents, as well as make its registration definitive.”

Bolsonaro did note that his decree will need support from the National Congress in order to be permanent and he pointed out that there are additional things Congress can do to shield gun ownership as well. He wrote, “The temporal expansion will be of intermediation of the executive, however other forms of improvement also depend on the National Congress, being the involvement of all interested parties.”

On December 2, Breitbart News reported that Brazilian lawmakers were already working to put forward legislation to give Bolsonaro the tools he need to protect the people’s right to own guns and to reinvigorate gun ownership among the law-abiding. The legislative push includes efforts to ease taxes on firearms and lower the legal purchase age from 25 to 21. Bloomberg reports that it also revolves around recognizing, “as a matter of law,” Brazilians’ “right to own and bear firearms for legitimate self-defense and the protection of personal property.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.