Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has signed an executive order relaxing gun rules in the country, making it easier to import guns and increasing the amount of ammunition a person can buy in a year.
Bolsonaro announced the signing of the decree at a Tuesday news conference, arguing “it is an individual right of the one who may want to have a firearm or seek the possession of a firearm… obviously respecting and fulfilling some requirements.”
The conservative provocateur, whose rhetorical targets include women and the LGBTQ community, appears to delivering on his campaign promise to loosen gun laws.
Tuesday’s executive order raised the limit on ammunition purchases from 50 to 5,000 cartridges for permitted guns, and 1,000 cartridges per year for restricted weapons.
Among the other changes, it simplifies the procedure to transfer the ownership of a firearm, and eases import restrictions on firearms,”allowing free initiative, stimulating competition, rewarding quality and safety, as well as economic freedom, so privileged by the Lord,” the Brazilian government wrote in a statement.
Imported firearms had previously been banned if there was a similar locally-made weapon.
The order, which goes into effect in 30 days, also eases restrictions for marksmen, collectors and hunters – who were restricted from carrying loaded guns to shooting clubs.
Bolsonaro had previously signed a decree in January making it easier to own a gun in the South American country.
The far-right political outsider convincingly won his country’s election last year, but has been criticized both at home and abroad for his anti-environment and anti-equality moves.
Since coming into power in January, the 64-year-old signed decrees which could potentially strip away many LGBTQ civil rights protections and open the Amazon rainforest and other environmentally sensitive areas to commercial exploitation.
CNN’s Duarte Mendonca contributed to this report.
