Jair Bolsonaro: "If someone comes home, I put the ball"

The Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, advocate of the release of weapons, said that if anyone entered his house, he would not hesitate to attack with bullets. "Me, for example, as a man, I have to defend my wife and if a man comes in (…), you have to put a bullet in there"said the ruler.

Bolsonaro has thus reaffirmed its conviction in favor of the flexibilization of the carrying of weapons which has given rise to a decree issued last Wednesday in which truck drivers, politicians, journalists and other groups have benefited from this authorization.

"If someone enters your house, you have to upload it (projectile)," recommended Bolsonaro. in an interview this Sunday at Rgoodbye Bandeirantes.

Bolsonaro, elected last October with a rhetoric in favor of weapons and a "strong hand" against crime, signed the measure at a ceremony Tuesday in Brasilia, but the full text released the next day revealed a wide range sectors allowed to carry weapons in public, such as farmers, hunters and even some journalists.

The President justifies all these changes by invoking a referendum in 2005, in which nearly 64% of Brazilians opposed the total ban on the arms trade.

But scholars say that easing controls will increase gun violence in a country that already has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Brazil recorded 64,000 homicides in 2017, nearly 31 per 100,000 population, which is three times the level considered by the United Nations as endemic violence.

The decree also allows gun owners to purchase up to 5,000 ammunition a yearor, depending on the caliber in question, a considerable leap from the previous limit of 50. The text also facilitates the import of weapons and ammunition, an old demand from international manufacturers and enthusiasts. foreign weapons.

Bolsonaro said there was a "popular" demand for the possession and circulation of arms, which he had promised to answer in the 2018 election campaign.

Judge Rosa Weber of the Federal Supreme Court asked the head of state to present this week the legal arguments on which the decree is based. Senate and MP counsel noted legal and possibly constitutional inconsistencies in the regulations.

With information from ANSA and AFP