Brazil eases gun laws

Sao Paolo: Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree easing restrictions on gun control and delivering on his campaign promise to make it easier for citizens to own firearms.

The president's office released a summary of the decree, which involves rules on the use, purchasing, imports and ownership of guns.

The decree regulates gun carry and sales permits for hunters, sports shooters and collectors, and modifies the regulations on gun use in rural areas. Carrying a firearm will be valid in one's entire rural property while it was previously only permitted on the main house of a property.

In addition, gun owners can buy between 1,000 and 5,000 rounds of ammunition per year, depending on their license, and the validity of permits was also extended to 10 years.

Brazilians who have gun possession permits will also be allowed to import weapons and ammunition, a move breaking the monopoly of local company Taurus, the largest gun producer in the country. Previously, prospective gun owners were only allowed to import firearms that did not have a locally-produced equivalent.

Bolsonaro, who has been criticised for his longtime pro-gun stance, said the decree guaranteed the individual rights of those wishing to own a gun and fulfilled the requirements to do so.

"We are following a path totally opposite to authoritarianism, which always seeks to disarm the population, asserting the popular sovereignty manifested in the 2005 referendum. We are mainly serving the citizen of good, who follows the laws and respects society," he said.

It is the second bill related to gun control Bolsonaro has signed since he took office in January. Two weeks into his presidency, the president signed another decree ending the requirement that gun seekers must formally justify their reason for wanting a gun with the Federal Police.