Brazil Gun Decree Scrapped by Bolsonaro Amid Congress Pushback

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro decided to withdraw a decree easing gun ownership rules amid lawmaker opposition to one of his central campaign pledges.

The administration will replace the gun decree that facilitates registration, ownership and marketing of firearms with a legislative bill, lower house Speaker Rodrigo Maia told reporters in Brasilia on Tuesday. Policy makers reached the decision days after the Senate backed legislation annulling the presidential order, a move that was likely to be followed by the lower house.

“This topic is very difficult and very controversial,” Maia said. “The government is going to submit a bill on this. Hopefully harmony will prevail.”

Bolsonaro won last October’s presidential elections due in part to the broad appeal of his hard-line stance on crime. He has repeatedly backed plans to ease the country’s gun laws, arguing that doing so would allow law-abiding citizens to better defend themselves against criminals. While homicides fell in the first quarter this year, Brazil’s murder rate still ranks among the highest in the world according to the most recent World Bank data.

In one of his first actions in government, Bolsonaro signed the gun decree in January and hinted at further measures facilitating access to arms. A school shooting in a Sao Paulo public school in March then reignited debate over the country’s firearm laws.

To contact the reporter on this story: Flavia Said in Brasilia at fsaid7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Walter Brandimarte at wbrandimarte@bloomberg.net, ;Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Matthew Malinowski

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