Brazilian voters strongly reject gun ban

Brazilian voters strongly reject gun ban
Date: Oct 24, 2005 8:01 PM
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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23715222.htm
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Brazilian voters strongly reject gun ban
24 Oct 2005 00:31:51 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Updates vote count, adds interviews)

By Terry Wade and Todd Benson

SAO PAULO, Brazil, Oct 23 (Reuters) - From sprawling cities
plagued by violence to the backwaters of the Amazon,
Brazilians voted decisively on Sunday to keep gun sales
legal in the country with the world's highest death toll
from firearms.

About 64 percent rejected banning arms sales in the
nationwide referendum, the electoral court said, with more
than 90 percent of the expected 122 million votes counted.

Only 36 percent supported the ban, even though some 36,000
people were killed by guns last year in Latin America's
largest country. Full results were expected on Monday.

"We didn't lose because Brazilians like guns. We lost
because people don't have confidence in the government or
the police," said Denis Mizne of anti-violence group Sou da
Paz.

Many voters had expressed concern before the vote that a ban
would leave them defenseless against heavily armed
criminals. Public confidence is low in a police force
widely seen as inefficient, abusive and corrupt.

"This referendum ... is not going to end violence," said
Assis Augusto Pires, 60, who voted against the ban in Sao
Paulo's wealthy Jardim Paulistano district, where high
walls, electrified fences and private guards protect
residents.

In Rio de Janeiro's Rocinha shantytown, scene of a raging
gangland turf war, Carlos Eduardo Ferreira, a 40-year-old
electrician, said he was voting for the ban.

"I am for the ban; I am for life. I've already seen kids
hit by bullets here," he said.

Spotlighting the issue, a young girl was wounded by a stray
bullet as police clashed with drug traffickers in Rio de
Janeiro's Dende slum on Saturday night, police said.

In Minas Gerais state, a supporter of gun sales shot and
wounded a ban backer during a bar argument on Friday.

The ban failed in all 26 states and the federal district of
Brasilia. Rural areas rejected it overwhelmingly.

"This region is very isolated. If you don't have a gun here
you don't have protection," said Igor Dedea, a logger in the
rainforest state of Para.

INTENSE CAMPAIGNING

Campaigning had been intense.

Surveys done a month ago had shown most people favored the
ban, but recent polls swung the other way. Groups favoring
the ban accused gun makers of funding a big gun rights
campaign and manipulating people's fears.

The result, which could influence other developing
countries, is being watched by U.S. lobbying groups like the
National Rifle Association.

If the referendum had passed, all sales of guns and
ammunition in Brazil would have been halted, although public
safety officers, private security firms and sport clubs
would still have been able to buy them.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his wife Marisa
Leticia both voted for the ban. "I think that for an
ordinary person to have firearms is not going to give
security, so I voted 'Yes,'" Lula said.

Many blamed the loss on a bribes scandal that has weakened
Lula's government and hurt his popularity.

"This loss stems partly from the political crisis that broke
in June," said Congressman Raul Jungmann, who voted for the
ban.

Violence is rampant throughout Brazil, from the cities to
the Amazon jungle and bloodshed and violence are a daily
concern.

The United Nations ranks Brazil second behind only Venezuela
in per capita gun deaths, with 22 for every 100,000 people.
In absolute terms it leads the world, with more than 36,000
shot and killed last year, government figures show.

That is down from 39,000 in 2003, a drop pro-ban groups
attribute to a government-sponsored gun buy-back program.
In contract, the United States, with 296 million people to
Brazil's 186 million, has about 30,000 gun deaths per year.

In Jardim Panorama, a rough Sao Paulo shantytown, lots of
people voted "no." If gun sales were banned, low-paid
police might dabble in arms trafficking, said Joao Rodrigues
Magalhaes, a 40-year-old machine operator.

(Additional reporting by Todd Benson, Alonso Soto, Andrei
Khalip, Maria Pia Palermo, Guido Nejamkis, Leonardo Ribeiro,
Mauricio Savarese and Terry Wade)