Brazil
The small arms industry has always been an active part of Brazil’s military-industrial complex. As the second-largest producer of small arms in the western hemisphere, Brazil has a large number of guns that are responsible for high levels of armed violence. In 2017, illicit holdings accounted for more than half of the 17 million firearms in Brazilian hands. The registration of small arms became systematically regulated at the national level in 1997.1
In 2022, the estimated total number of guns held by civilians dropped to 4 million. The Firearms Act of 2003 constitutes the country's guiding gun control legislation. Brazil has signed and ratified the Arms Trade Treaty and the UN Firearms Protocol.2
1 Pablo Dreyfus, Benjamin Lessing, Marcelo de Sousa Nascimento and Júlio Cesar Purcena, Small Arms in Brazil: Production, Trade, and Holdings (Geneva: Small Arms Survey, 2010), https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SAS-SR11-Small-Arms-in-Brazil.pdf.
2 Philip Alpers and Michael Picard, Brazil – Gun Facts, Figures and the Law (GunPolicy.org, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, 2022), https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/brazil.
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Further information
Accidental explosions
Since the Small Arms Survey began collecting data in 1979, five accidental explosions have been reported in Brazil.
Table 1. Accidental explosions in Brazil (1979–2021)
Year | Location | Owner/manager | Deaths | Injuries |
2012 | Alagoas | State (police) | 1 | 4 |
2009 | São José dos Campos | State (military) | 0 | 1 |
2007 | São Paulo | State (police) | 1 | 5 |
1995 | Ilha do Boqueirão | State (military) | 0 | 23 |
1995 | Paracambi | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Source: “Unplanned Explosions at Munitions Sites (UEMS) Database,” Small Arms Survey, updated December 15, 2021, https://smallarmssurvey.org/database/unplanned-explosions-munitions-sites-uems.
Cases of diversion
Numerous cases of diversion have been reported in Brazil.
Table 2. Cases of diversion of arms, ammunition and explosives in Brazil
Year | Location | Description |
2011–20 | São Paulo state | More than 33,000 weapons were diverted from the legal to the illegal market. |
2000–10 | Rio de Janeiro | There were 8,912 cases of diversion of arms from both private and public holdings reported. |
Sources: Caroline Gonçalves and Kai Michael Kenkel, "Implementing SDG Target 16.4 Illicit Arms Flows, Diversion, and Corruption in Rio de Janeiro," Small Arms Survey Blog, August 17, 2018, https://smallarmssurvey.medium.com/illicit-arms-flows-diversion-and-corruption-in-rio-de-janeiro-moving-towards-implementation-of-81033960b8c5; Bruno Langeani and Ingrid Passos, Fatal Diversion the Leakage of Weapons from the Legal to the Illegal Market in the State of São Paulo (São Paulo: Sou da Paz Institute, 2022), https://soudapaz.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Fatal-Diversion-Report-05242022.pdf.
Disposal
Insufficient information on the disposal of ammunition in Brazil.
Needs
No reported needs have been identified for Brazil.
Source: Brazil, National Report on the Implementation of the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PoA) and the International Tracing Instrument (ITI) (New York: Permanent Mission of Brazil to the UN, 2018), https://unoda-poa.s3.amazonaws.com/reports/BRA-English-769-SUBMITTED.pdf.
