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Ministry of Justice publishes reports on arms trafficking in Brazil
20 December , 2010 - The Minister of Justice of Brazil, Luiz Paulo Barreto, announced on Monday 20, the result of investigations conducted by the NGO Viva Rio, in collaboration with the Subcommittee on Arms of the National Congress, on the Map of Firearms Trafficking in Brazil and the Ranking of States Arms Control. The investigations were supported by PRONASCI, Ministry of Justice.
According to the studies, almost half of the weapons in circulation in Brazil is illegal - 7.6 million of a total of 16 million weapons. The data also shows that Brazil is "world champion in absolute numbers of deaths by firearms, with 34,300 murders a year."
Another revelation is that out of ten guns seized in the country, eight are manufactured in the country, which demystifies the idea that most illegal guns come from outside.
Regarding the firearms from abroad, 59.2% comes from the United States, 16.7 from Argentina, 6.9% from Spain, 6.4% from Germany and 4.1% come from Belgium. Also according to the researches, the lack of control of weapons by States is the main factor to urban violence.
The studies are intended to guide the government on where to invest to improve the control of arms and ammunition in the States and to help local governments improve their security policies aimed at combating illicit arms trafficking and the diversion of firearms of the police.
According to the research coordinator, Antonio Rangel, "This pioneering study on the hidden world of arms collapses several myths, including the exclusive focus on illegal guns, while about 30% of weapons seized by the police were legally registered and sold before diving into the crime ". During the launching, four books and two reports were simultaneously published:
- Monitoring Arms Route: Deviation, trade and traffic, from the analysis of about 288,000 firearms, pointing to the source, the proportion and type of domestic and foreign weapons seized in the illegality;
- Stocks and Distribution of guns in Brazil: reveals the global universe of weapons circulating in the country, by sector of activity, distinguishing legal and illegal markets, in addition to studying the impact of gun registration and disarmament campaigns in public safety;
- Monitoring of weapons seized in the states of Brazil: analyzes the information on about 340,000 firearms, pointing to the main channels of diversion for crime and reveals the routes of the weapons that were sold legally in some states and were seized illegally in others;
- Classification of States in relation to arms control: with its first version launched a year ago, is now presented in its final version, comparing the position of each state government regarding the management of information control and gun control highlighting the best and the worst governments, and outlines a framework for the deficiency of most of the main arms deposits in the country;
- Manual of Arms and Ammunition Tracking and Basic Manual for Tracing Ammunition: Two publications to train police and experts in the classification and monitoring of arms and ammunition.
National Public Safety Secretariat, Ministry of Justice of Brazil