When President Jair Bolsonaro became Brazil’s president four years ago, he began relaxing gun ownership restrictions. As a result, Brazil has seen a reduction in homicides and is at a 14-year low. The Washington Post reported this Friday, and to their shock and chagrin, Brazil’s increase in gun ownership corresponded to a drop in violent crime.
Since 2017 Brazil’s homicide rate has decreased by 27%, causing retired military police chief Marcelo Venera to call the statistics that followed an increase in gun ownership a “triumph of liberty” and said that “there is nothing wrong with loving guns.” When interviewed, another Brazilian also praised Bolsonaro’s looser laws and the achieved results, saying, “Everyone said there would be more homicides when Bolsonaro loosened the restrictions. But it turned out to be the opposite!”
Leftist ideology drives the unproven narrative that gun control and stricter gun laws drive violent crime incidents down. Yet two states with extremely strict gun control have been the grounds for mass shootings. Illinois is one of the states with the most stringent anti-gun laws in the U.S. Yet despite this, in July, a criminal committed a mass shooting in Highland Park.
Buffalo, New York, also experienced a mass shooting event, although the state is known for its gun laws.
It should be common sense that criminals do not follow laws, let alone gun control laws. And law-abiding citizens are not in the demographic likely to commit violent crimes.
Bolsonaro pledged to bring the crime rates down in Brazil by rolling back on gun-control laws, believing that armed citizens would deter criminals. His goal was to enable good people and citizens to ensure peace in their homes. Bolsonaro was right!
While the left struggles with the idea that there are ways to stop violent crime that don’t involve violating citizens’ rights by removing the right to bear arms, the reality is gun control does not work.
Unfortunately, gun ownership has become a divisive subject over the past years, but a proper understanding of America’s history reveals that a well-armed citizenry provides safer homes, safer communities, safer schools, and, ultimately, a safer nation.
