Brazilian Gun Ban Rejected

Brazil appears to be more like America than it cares to admit.

Brazilians struck down a proposal to ban the sale of guns in a national referendum, rejecting a bid to stem one of the world's highest firearm murder rates in a debate that mirrored the gun control battle in the United States.

Brazil has 100 million fewer citizens than the United States, but a staggering 25 percent more gun deaths at nearly 40,000 a year. While supporters argued gun control was the best way to stanch the violence, opponents played on Brazilians' fears that the police can't protect them in the campaign leading up to Sunday's vote.

That last line was some fair and balanced reporting. Played on fears is different than pointing out reality though, isn't it?

Of course, the NRA is getting blamed for the failure.

But the referendum backfired for proponents. Earlier this year, support for the ban was running as high as 80 percent. But in the weeks before the vote, both sides got free time to present their cases on prime-time TV, and the pro-gun lobby began to gain traction.

Analysts said the pro-gun lobby benefited from equal time on television in the final weeks of the campaign and that they cannily cashed in on Brazilian skepticism of the police.

"They ask the question: 'Do you feel protected and do you think the government is protecting you?' and the answer is a violent no," said political scientist David Fleischer of the University of Brasilia.

The combination of Brazil's high gun-death rate and the nature of the debate over the right to gun ownership has echoed the gun debate in the United States.

"The whole campaign (against the ban) was imported from the United States. They just translated a lot of material from the NRA," said Jessica Galeria, a Californian who researches gun violence with the Viva Rio think tank, referring to the National Rifle Association. "Now, a lot of Brazilians are insisting on their right to bear arms. They don't even have a pseudo right to bear arms. It's not in their Constitution."

It's an odd debate there. From what is reported the gun control act of 2003 has had a great affect in lowering the number of gun related deaths. But as we have all learned, the data provided doesn't always show all of the causes of the change. The gun control groups in the USA tried very similar tactics with the "Assault Weapons Ban" and were shown to be twisting data that didn't support the facts at all. I'm certain that we'll never actually see that data though.