Brazil's gun routes traced

Close to 16 million firearms circulate in Brazil today, 8.4 million of them are legal (52.4%) and 7.6 million are illegal (47%) according to data from the Brazilian national firearms system the Sinarm, (Sistema nacional de armas), data computed to September 2010. Of this total, approximately 14 million guns (87%) are in civilian hands and close to 2 million guns (13%) belong to the State. Brazil is the world champion in absolute figures for gun related deaths with 34,300 homicides per year. The homicides are commonly attributed to guns under illegal ownership, but 30% of gun seizurees that were owned illegally had been originally bought legally. Over 80% of them are made in Brazil. Brazil is the sixth leading exporter of small arms.

The data was issued at the Brazilian National Congress’ Subcommission on Firearms by Brazil’s Ministry of Justice together with Viva Rio this Monday the 20th of December in Brasilia, during the launch of two studies and four books on guns circulating in Brazil. The studies were produced by Viva Rio with the support of the Ministry of Justice’s National Program on Public Security and Citizenship (Pronasci). The studies intend to guide the government investments with the aim of improving gun and ammunition control in Brazilian states and to help state governments to improve their security policies that target the illegal arms trade as well as guns diverted from police corporations into the illegal ownership.
State ranking in gun control

Over the past 10 years, 226,152 gun seizures took place in 19 Brazilian states. In the report entitled (loosely translated) A State Ranking of gun control: Quantitative and Qualitative ranking of data on firearms seized in Brazil (Ranking dos estados no controle de armas: Análise Quantitativa e Qualitativa dos Dados sobre Armas de Fogo Apreendidas no Brasil,) states with the best results were the Federal District, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Those at the bottom were Rondôncia, Sergipe and Amapá.

The following aspects were analyzed and compared: the gun related deaths rate (PAF) in each unit of the federation (1996-2008); the total number of guns collected in national voluntary hand in campaigns; the number of gun licenses issued in national campaigns to license undocumented guns, in 2008/9; the number of guns seized and informed by each state authority over the past 10 years; the quality of the information provided on guns seizures for tracing guns nationally and internationally (whether the basic data on each gun is coherent and precise  - model, caliber, manufacturer, brand, and serial number, how much data is given on the place the gun was seized, the circumstances of the seizure, and crime associated to the seizure, and how the data was provided, whether on paper or in digital format, as requested); how well the states responded and collaborated with each other (how fast data was provided upon request, and how exhaustively were the requests fulfilled); a qualitative analysis of the responses pertaining to aspects such as the route that seized guns and ammunition take to their final destination (return to owner, donation or destruction) the route of the data given on guns and ammunitions seizures and the security procedures in place in firearms deposits including those that belong to the police.

“Gun control does not solve but it is an essential part of reducing lethal violence. If you follow the gun route you will also find the paths of the other illicit activities,” says the report that had been issued in a preliminary version a year ago and now comes out in full.

According to study coordinator Pablo Dreyfus, who died last year at the Air France flight 447 crash, there are gun control challenges that still hold true for Brazil today: gun data is provided in a fragmented manner, gun deposits are lack adequate security and in many cases there is the technology is still lacking, especially in poorer states. “In 21st century Brazil, public security in many states still works much like an 18th century bureaucracy.”

Gun routes

288 thousand bits of data on seized guns (especially from1998 to 2008) were analyzed for the book Seguindo a rota das armas: desvio, comércio e tráfico ilícitos de armamento pequeno e leve no Brasil (loosely translates as Following the gun route: diversions, trade and illegal trafficking). It provides data on guns seized, among them types of firearms and location of manufacturers. The study concludes that a thin line separates legal from illegal guns, since the majority of seizures comprised guns that may be legally used, of which 30% were legally bought and 80% were made in Brazil. “If the legal market is not controlled, a door will be open for guns to slip into a clandestine existence and crime,” says the study.

Another commonly held assumption that comes undone with study findings is that the majority of illegal guns in Brazil are foreign. Foreign firearms number less than 20% of the total number of seizures.

The states that registered the most seizures of Brazilian guns were Bahia (97.5%) and Pernambuco (85.5%) according to the Public Security Offices (SSPs); foreign guns were seized in greater numbers in Rio Grande do Sul (18.8%) and in Rio de Janeiro (16.4%) according to the Sinarm. The majority of guns prohibited for civilian use came from the United States of America and Paraguay. The study notes that border controls are far from suitable at this time.
The Brazilian National Congress’ Subcommission on Firearms requested information on firearms and ammunitions from the SSPs and the State Courts through a detailed questionnaire. It is important to note that the data from the SSPs are not a perfect match with the Sinarm because the SSPs do not routinely fully inform the Sinarm system.

Requests for information we also made to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and explosives of the US government, and to those countries that show up as manufacturers of firearms seized in Brazil. All responses were compiled by the Brazilian civil society organization Viva Rio and sent through the Subcommission to firearms manufacturers as well as to the Federal Police (PF) and the Diretoria de Fiscalização de Produtos Controlados (DFPC) requesting their cooperation in finding records of the first owners of the firearms listed.

Stocks and distribution

The book Estoques e distribuição de armas de fogo no Brasil looks into the obscure and secret world of firearms circulation in Brazil, and makes connections to the high homicide rates in the country. The study also evaluates the impact of policies instated to regulate firearms and voluntary disarmament campaigns held by the federal government over the past few years.

The study mapped the total number of firearms in circulation in Brazil, according to the number of gun users, resorting to Sinarm data, provided to September 2010. Of the total 15,996,301 firearms, 8.378.608 are licensed firearms, and 7.617.693 unlicensed. The great majority of firearms, 87%, are in the hands of civilians. Short guns (revolvers, pistols) account for over 80% of the firearms seized. The number of military grade weapons, (machine and submachine guns and rifles) is very small. In the state of Maranhão, 22.5% of the guns seized are home made and in Mato Grosso do Sul, 24.9% are hunting weapons.

Evaluations of the voluntary hand in campaigns held in 2004/5 and 2008/9 per state made it clear that civil society took part much more actively in the first campaign that collected a total of half a million firearms. The second campaign collected 30,300 firearms and licensed 1,408,285 firearms.

Firearms seized in Brazilian states

The report Rastreamento das Armas de Fogo Apreendidas nos Estados Brasileiros, notes the main routes of gun diversion that arm criminals and uncovered the main route of illegal gun sales by tracing guns from a first legal purchase in one state to when they are subsequently located in illegal markets in another state.

The study also picked up on the so called boomerang effect, when firearms manufactured in Brazil are exported only to later re-enter the market. In the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, bordering Paraguay and Bolivia, a high percentage of firearms was found being reintroduced into Brazil, 28.13% of the total number of guns seized.

The report also looked at whether gun manufacturers were able to pin point the identity of the first buyer of a firearm, percentages of success vary, with Imbel rated at the top with 27%, Rossi in second place with 19%, Taurus with 16%, and CBC with 14%. Taurus informed that a fire in 1997 allegedly destroyed its archives obliterating the information on guns sold earlier.

A manual for police officers

Among the publications issued, the Manual de Ratreamento de Armas e Cartilha Básica para Rastreamento de Munições was one of the last publications to come out by Pablo Dreyfus who died in the Air France flight 447 accident. The manual is a guide for police officers and specialists in classifying and tracing guns and ammunition.

Cover photo: By the Paraná State Police

Translated by Lis Horta Moriconi.