Chamber President Maia Advocates Changing Bolsonaro’s Firearms Project

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Rodrigo Maia, president of the Chamber of Deputies, defended on Tuesday, August 13th, measures to soften President Jair Bolsonaro‘s project on the regulation of the use and carrying of firearms. Maia said that a text that respects the average thinking of Brazilian society on the subject would be the ideal. “We are neither going for excess, nor for nothing, and we will also vote on expanded rural possession,” he said.

At the behest of the Chamber president, the government leader in Congress, Deputy Joice Hasselmann, agreed to withdraw the bill’s constitutional urgency; urgency locks the progress of the congressional agenda.

Maia pledged to vote for regulatory urgency on the bill, which allows the granting of firearms possession to new categories by presidential decree, in addition to those provided for in the Disarmament Statute .

In the first semester, the government revoked the decree relaxing restrictions on carrying firearms and submitted the proposal with constitutional urgency to address the issue.

According to Maia, the current restrictions on the use and carrying of firearms should be upheld, the discretionary power of the Federal Police to grant possession should be revoked, and a proposal for re-registration should be presented.

Maia wants to vote on the proposal by next week, including the issue of extended possession approved in June by the Senate. The text approved by the senators allows owners of rural properties to hold firearms anywhere on the farm and not only in the farmhouse, as provided for in current legislation, and sets at 21 years the minimum age for acquiring weapons in rural areas.

Maia further intends to discuss the rules for collectors, marksmen, and hunters (CACs), provided for in the bill by representative Alexandre Leite.

“I think the text proposed by deputy Alexandre Leite is better, it is milder than what was submitted by the government, ensures a legal rule for this category, and settles this issue,” he explained.