Gun Policy, Violence, and Peace: Examining the Challenges Faced by Civil Society and the State in Brazil

Abstract

This chapter analyses the following question: how can civil society and the state promote peace through gun policy? We first provide an overview of armed violence in Brazil using an epidemiological approach, illustrating how this phenomenon is distributed unequally among different social groups and highlighting the primary role that firearms have in the dynamics of violence. Second, we discuss the growing role of scientific evidence as a basis for policy formulation at the national and international levels with reference to firearms. Third, we describe the emergence and results of a specific public policy aimed to reduce violence and promote peace: the 2003 Disarmament Statute. Furthermore, we develop a critical analysis of the major resistances Brazilian civil society and the state are encountering with regard to this policy: pro-gun interests, deregulation, and corruption. We question whether these actors are promoting or, in fact, simply obstructing peace. Finally, we present strategies for peace promotion through gun control policy and conclude the chapter by evaluating the plausibility, in the Brazilian context, of the well-known claim: “more guns, less peace”.