International > Brazil gun deaths down after disarmament campaign

The report was released seven weeks before a referendum on banning guns and arms sales in Latin America's largest country, which is gripped by rampant crime.

It said gun deaths fell by more than 8 percent to 36,091 in 2004 compared with the previous year.

The report said more than 443,700 guns were collected in a disarmament campaign launched in mid-2004, in which the government pays compensation to people who hand in weapons with no questions asked, and this had helped cut the death total.

Brazil had the highest world total of gun deaths in 2003, when 39,325 people were killed.

That is more than the annual death tolls in the Gulf War, the Angolan and Colombian civil wars or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has said.

The arms lobby insists illegal arms sales are responsible for most of the deaths and that honest citizens need guns to protect themselves. They say current gun laws are already strict.

To legally purchase a gun a person must take shooting and gun handling courses, have a permanent residence and a job, pass a psychological test and have no criminal convictions. Guns must be re-registered every three years at a fee which is prohibitive for many.

Still, a national survey in July showed that eight out of 10 Brazilians would vote for the ban on gun and ammunition sales in the referendum set for October 23.

According to the Health Ministry figures, homicides accounted for 91 percent of all gunshot deaths in 2004, while accidents made up 1 percent and suicides 3 percent.

2005-09-03