Lula tries to criminalize CACs and threatens survival of the shot

In addition to the decrees issued by the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to tighten the rules for registering weapons, the president and his allies are striving to promote a narrative that tries to criminalize the group formed by hunters, shooters and collectors (CACs) . To cite a more recent example, Lula said in his weekly podcast that “those who carry weapons are cowards and do not want to do good”. The position, which is reflected in the decrees, threatens the survival of athletes, shooting clubs and gun and ammunition stores in Brazil.

Declaring that the country was going through a period of “weapons disguised as CAC”, and that there was a lot of “scam” on the part of collectors, shooters and hunters, the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, announced in July the second decree dealing with the subject. The first came right at the beginning of Lula’s term, in January 2023, in a clear signal about how the PT administration would deal with the issue.

Public security researcher and jurist Fabrício Rebelo classifies the government’s most recent decree as a true “legal aberration”. “Perhaps in order to divert the focus from the manifest unconstitutionalities and illegalities that it contains, it turned to this unfounded and truly frivolous discourse that CACs would be, in some way, linked to criminal activities, which, curiously, was refuted by the re-registration invented in January, in which more than 99.6% of the weapons were effectively reached”, says Rebelo.

The jurist also says that today there is a “demonization attitude bankrolled by the government [em relação às armas]with frank support from the media, which turns out to be a mere narrative effort to validate restrictions that have absolutely no technical commitment, only ideological roots integrated into a power agenda”.

Athletes face difficulties to train and participate in competitions

Thyago Almeida is a shooting instructor, owner of a shop and a stand in Brasília, he was a Brazilian IDSC champion, a sport shooting modality focused on self-defense practice in 2021 and also has three titles of Brazilian team champion for the District on his resume Federal and seven district champions in the IPSC dynamic shooting category.

Faced with the current scenario, he claims that the weapons segment is “in a tight spot” and asks: “People say it’s a revenge decree, but against what? What did I do? I worked, paid taxes, won a medal , I fulfilled my role as an instructor teaching people how to use a gun correctly and safely”.

“The CACs today are seen as bandits, it seems like political persecution, without reason”, adds Almeida, who says his career is “frozen” due to the new rules on the purchase of ammunition. According to him, the amount allowed so that he can train and compete is insufficient.

“In a competition, in every race [utiliza-se] 250 shots per modality, six stages per year, only then there were 1,500 per modality. The account does not close”. Decree 11.615/2023 restricts the number of ammunition per year to four thousand. “It will make sport shooting unfeasible”, evaluates Almeida.

Gun restrictions also affect Almeida’s gun stand and shop in the federal capital. According to him, what currently comes in is barely enough to cover maintenance, not to mention the stock of weapons kept in a vault, which were purchased and cannot yet be delivered due to the new regulations.

Furthermore, he explains that no store can shut down overnight. “The weapons sold remain in the custody of the companies for months until all the documents are issued by the Army”. “This obliges us to maintain the structure, security, address, control systems, and all of this has a monthly cost”.

“Nobody in their right mind wants to invest in this market during this term. My company had 15 employees, today there are four. Business is desperate, I don’t know anyone who has been making money since January”, criticizes Almeida.

Unemployment and debts surround the sector

The President of the National Association of Gun Store Owners, Shooting Clubs and Similar Activities (Anplace), Alysson Lopes, reinforces that there is persecution against the sector by the PT administration. “The current government, since the first day, pursues the activity in an unreasonable way. Several people have lost investments of a lifetime simply for working with something they like”.

“The sector [de Defesa], in 2022, collected 4.7% of the country’s GDP. In a place that needs public resources so much, what’s the point of subjugating one of the sectors that have the heaviest tax burden on economic activities, if not mere persecution?”, asks Lopes. “We understand that the government is disarmament and, we we have to coexist. Even because the shot [esportivo] will continue after the PT and as many years to come”, says the president of the Association of Owners of Shops and Shooting Clubs.

Disclosure of PF operations against CACs show mistaken narrative

The prosecutor Luciano Lara, researcher and author of the books Legitimate Armed Defense It is Papa Alpha, Carrying a Weapon for Self Defenseis categorical in reacting to government statements that try to link shooters and collectors to militias and organized crime, and criticizes the construction of narratives.

Lara quotes Operation Day Afterannounced by the Federal Police in May, shortly after the deadline for re-registering weapons from collectors, shooters and hunters, determined in the first anti-gun decree of the Lula government, and which ended with the arrest of CACs.

But, in this case, the arrest warrants were determined for the commission of other crimes, unrelated to the registration of weapons, or even the non-payment of alimony – which does not constitute a crime, although it may result in imprisonment until payment is made. of what is due.

“These are people who lost their suitability to remain in the system and should have been excluded by now, and less than 50 arrests in a universe of 900,000 CACs demonstrates that the inspection system works”, highlights the prosecutor. He also cites government data that 99.65% of weapons acquired in the previous government were re-registered with the determination of the PT administration.

Lara points out that, to be entitled to register the weapon, the citizen undergoes psychological tests, needs to prove suitability and undergoes control and inspection by the Army.

History of Gun Regulations Over the Years

The jurist Fabrício Rebelo explains that Brazil has gone through several stages over the years when dealing with the regulation of weapons. He cites the period between 2004 and 2018 as the most rigorous, with an interval of easing between 2019 and 2022, during the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The current phase is of even more severe restrictions.

“It is enough to compare each of these periods with the criminality indicators to verify, empirically, that those with less legal circulation of weapons correspond to those with the greatest increase in crimes. Therefore, sustaining the existence of cause and effect between disarmament and criminality is to fight against the facts”, opines the jurist.

Lawmakers seek to soften anti-gun rules

As soon as the most recent anti-gun decree was announced by the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, deputies who are part of the Security Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, presented criticisms that swelled the chorus of CACs against the tightening of the rules.

Paulo Bilynskyj (PL-SP) is the author of a new Legislative Decree Project (PDL) to try to overthrow the government norm. The text has the support of 54 deputies and needs to be approved by the commission, by the plenary of the House and then also pass by the Senate.

The deputy classifies the decree as “a political revenge commanded by Lula and executed by Dino”. he said to People’s Gazette that still trusts in a negotiation to change points of the anti-gun decree, such as the issue of inspection, which was transferred from the Army to the Federal Police, which could only be by means of law.

Another point confronted is the minimum distance of one kilometer between shooting clubs and educational establishments, determined by the new rule. “If there is no progress in flexibility, it will be up to the deputies to try to overturn the decree”, he says.