Jair Bolsonaro said everyone should have a rifle: “If you don’t want to buy one, don’t disturb those who do.”

The President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, said on Friday that everyone should have a gun, during a meeting with his supporters in front of the Palacio de la Alvorada, the official residence of the President. “If you don’t want to buy one, don’t disturb anyone who wants“he claimed.

The head of state, who tried to change the laws to allow more Brazilians to carry weapons in self-defense, said opponents should stop bothering gun buyers and he recalled that last February, he had taken a new step in his objective of promoting “self-defense” by making civilians’ access to arms even more flexible, through a decree published in the Official Journal. .

According to the text, citizens who have the corresponding licenses can buy up to six weapons and 2,000 ammunition per year.

In addition, the certificate of “technical training“Necessary to access weapons, issued by the authorities, can be replaced by a statement from a shooting club in which it must indicate that the applicant practices “usually”.

Besides, members of shooting clubs and hunters will have the power to purchase up to 60 rifles per year, without the express authorization of the Army, which was required until now.

Making access to arms more flexible was one of the offers Bolsonaro presented to Brazilians during the 2018 election campaign, but several of the measures he adopted in this regard were moderated or even canceled by Parliament or Justice.

That same month, after a renewal of the directives of the chambers which strengthened the power of Bolsonaro’s allies in Parliament, the president had already warned that he intended to resume his offensive in favor of “self-defense” citizens against crime.

Bolsonaro, the far-right leader who openly declares himself in arms, claimed earlier this year that he is not afraid of the “armed people”, because that “prevents a leader from becoming a dictator”.

The president maintains that “a police officer in operation must have guarantees, since he is the head of the family, a worker who cannot, after having accomplished his mission, receive a visit from a judicial officer at his home. And he noticed: “If he is armed in the street, it is because he has been given arms”.

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