Due to alleged risks in elections, Supreme Court Justice restricts regulations on weapons in Brazil

Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) Justice Edson Fachin on Monday (5) suspended the effectiveness of regulations and parts of decrees issued by President Jair Bolsonaro that facilitate access to weapons and ammunition in Brazil.

Fachin said that the start of the election campaign increases the “risk of political violence.”

He referred to “recent and regrettable incidents of political violence”.

What exactly he meant by this remains open.

“In other words, the risk of political violence makes granting the injunction extremely and exceptionally urgent,” he added.

The decisions are preliminary and must be reviewed by the full Court to affirm or reject the findings.

A date for the hearing has not yet been set.

Fachin’s decision was issued in three separate cases filed by the PT party and PSB. The analysis of the cases was stopped at STF in September 2021 by a request from Justice Nunes Marques (more time for analysis).

The request was made in the virtual plenary session, a model in which there is no debate and ministers enter their votes in the Court’s electronic system.

“Although it is advisable to carefully await the contributions that will result from the requests for opinions, after more than a year and in light of recent and regrettable episodes of political violence, it is necessary to issue the injunction to protect the very object of this Court’s deliberations,” Fachin wrote.

The rulings suspend the effectiveness of the following regulations:

• of the decree, which increases the number of rounds of ammunition that can be purchased each month;
• part of a decree allowing CACs (hunters, shooters, and collectors) to buy and carry restricted weapons;
• the enactment of a regulation establishing an actual need to purchase a permitted gun.

On this last point, the Justice provided guidance that possession of firearms may be permitted only to persons who specifically demonstrate that they have an actual need for professional or personal reasons.

According to the judge, the activity of the executive branch to regulate the issue can not create “presumptions of actual need” beyond those already established by law.

Fachin also set forth the following interpretations for the offending rules:

• The quantitative limitation of the ammunition is to be acquired to the level that, with careful and proportionate consideration, ensures only what is necessary for the safety of citizens.
• The acquisition of firearms for limited use may be authorized only in the interest of public safety or national defense and not based on the applicant’s interest.

WEAPONS AND AMMUNITION

Fachin said that the decree section containing rules for CACs “creates an impermissible permit for the acquisition of limited-use firearms without the control of Army leadership.”

The Justice also understood that the standard violates the disarmament statute.

The rule states that collectors can purchase or carry up to 5 restricted-use firearms. Hunters, 15, and shooters, 30 guns.

“CACs are permitted to purchase an extremely high number of restricted-use firearms for no empirical or normative reason,” the minister said.

“This number is incompatible with the Brazilian state’s factual and normative reality.”

Fachin said that increasing ammunition circulating in society has negative consequences for citizens.

“The most dramatic consequences are the increase in violent crimes committed with firearms, the diversion of legally acquired ammunition to organized crime, the escalation of domestic violence, and the disproportionate increase in violent acts against minority groups.

According to the minister, the regulation contradicts the purpose of the disarmament statute.

“The sharp increase in the amount of ammunition between Interministerial Decrees No. 412/GM-MD and No. 1,634/GM-MD is not rationally justified according to the constitutionally adequate teleology,” he said.

“Between January and April 2020, it is impossible to reconstruct a factual situation that requires increasing access to ammunition by up to 1700% (one thousand seven hundred percent) with due diligence.”