The former president of the United States, Donald Trump, defended the policy of arming the population promoted in Brazil by the former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, and used it as an example of a public measure to curb crime. The statement took place during his participation at CNN Town Hall, held in the state of New Hampshire, on Wednesday night (10).
“He (Bolsonaro) told people to go out and buy guns. People went there and bought and crime dropped a lot. The numbers decreased because they started to have security.”
Moderated by Kaitlan Collins, anchor of CNN This Morning, this was Trump’s first interview with CNN since 2016. He answered questions from Republican and undecided voters.
Trump mentioned Brazil when answering a voter if he intended to take measures to restrict the use of weapons by the population, as the current US president, Joe Biden, has been doing. He dismissed the possibility and invoked the second amendment to the US Constitution, which states that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be violated”.
“Nobody protected the second amendment like I did. I made it to the end and it’s not something easy. We have a mental health problem in this country. It’s not the guns that pull the trigger, it’s the people who do.”
After this speech, Trump cited Brazil under Bolsonaro as an example that would be adopted if he returns to the White House. “There is a country that had a very strict policy on guns. Brazil was very strict. The killing was absurd. People entered people’s homes and killed. They had no protection. Then he (Bolsonaro) told people to go out and buy guns. People went there and bought and crime dropped a lot. The numbers decreased because they started to have security.”
drop in deaths
According to data from the Brazilian Public Security Forum, Brazil recorded a historic record in homicides in 2017, when more than 64,000 people were murdered and the mortality rate reached 30.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. The numbers started to drop from then on. In 2018, the index had already dropped to 22,300.
Starting in 2019, the Bolsonaro government reduced the rigidity on gun legislation in the country. Based on this policy, the Brazilian Public Security Forum produced a study to investigate whether the reduction in violent lethality was the result of this legal relaxation. Through an econometric analysis, it was found that the greater the distribution of weapons, the higher the homicide rate. Still according to the studies, if there had not been an increase in firearms in circulation from 2019 onwards, there would have been 6,379 fewer homicides in Brazil. In other words, the increase in the dissemination of weapons ended up preventing or curbing an even greater drop in deaths.
(Posted by Fabio Mendes)
Source: CNN Brasil
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