RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- A rap group interrupts the TV evening news with a rapid-fire tirade about the need to protect family and friends. No gangsta rap here -- they want Brazil to ban the sale of guns.
Then a young woman tells viewers that banning guns won't stop violence, and that she won't give up her constitutional right to bear arms. If Brazil outlaws guns, she warns, only outlaws will have guns.
Latin America's largest country is debating: Should the sale of guns and ammunition be prohibited in Brazil?
On October 23, Brazilians will give their answer.
More than 100 million Brazilians are expected to vote, in a referendum the government calls the world's biggest. Brazilians as young as 16 can vote, and voting is compulsory for citizens from 18 to 70.
And the issue has touched a nerve in this country, where gun violence is a fact of daily life.
"People here use guns so often, for any reason," said Dr. Zilda Arns, a founder of the Catholic Church-linked Children's Pastoral and a campaigner for abolition. "They regret it later, but then it's too late."
Unofficial polls show a majority of Brazilians favor abolition -- and statistics indicate they have reason to be alarmed.
About 39,000 people in Brazil are killed by guns each year, or about four an hour.
According to UNESCO, Brazil ranks second in deaths by guns, with 21.72 per 100,000 people a year. Venezuela proportionately has more, with 34.30 per 100,000, but Brazil is tops in absolute numbers.
More than one in every 11 Brazilians has a gun, says the Institute of Religious Studies or ISER, an independent research group based in Rio. That's about 17 million guns in a nation of 183 million.
Today, many Brazilians use guns because of rising urban crime. Heavily armed drug gangs control Rio's shantytowns, or favelas, and regularly engage in gunfights with outmanned and outgunned police.
Part of the sprawling Mare shantytown has been dubbed the Gaza Strip because of the constant shooting, and the Red Line -- the road to Rio's international airport and a major city avenue by day -- at night becomes a no man's land, with drivers avoiding random gunfire from nearby favelas.
Abolitionists points to successful examples of disarmament in other countries. In Australia, where the right to bear guns became a "privilege" a decade ago, the number of deaths from firearms was cut in half over five years.
Japan, which has a similar law, registers only about 30 gun-related killings a year -- fewer than in an average weekend in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city.
But the pro-gun lobby insists the referendum is a violation of citizens' rights. And their hard-hitting campaign is winning more support than abolitionists expected.
"I won't relinquish my right. The state won't tell me what to do," said law professor Adilson Dallari, a leader of the gun supporters.
Sao Paulo state legislator Ubiratan Guimaraes, a former state police colonel, called the referendum an "aberration."
"As long as we don't have an efficient border police, until we have better public security, it's cowardice to deny a citizen the right to defend himself," Guimaraes said on his web site. "This country still has the right to private property."
Guimaraes made headlines for leading repression of a 1992 uprising in Carandiru prison, recently closed. Police killed 111 inmates, and Guimaraes is appealing a prison sentence of 632 years.
Manufacturers also are up in arms.
"It's a mistake the size of Brazil," gun maker Taurus said in a statement. "The decision will have very little impact on reducing violence or crime."
The company's sales would likely be affected if the referendum passes. The Rio-based rights group Viva Rio calculates that 90,000 jobs linked to the manufacture and sale of guns could be lost.
Abolitionists say the pro-gun lobby plays on Brazilian fears that domestic industry would be supplanted by the United States. "One of the media programs said the real interest behind the gun campaign is that the United States wants to sell more weapons, destroy Brazil's gun industry and take over the Amazon," said Jessica Galeria of the International Action Network on Small Arms.
In 2004, Brazil tried to reduce the guns in circulation with a buyback program and collected some 350,000 handguns, rifles and shotguns. Health Ministry figures showed gun deaths fell 8 percent in a year.
But even if the referendum passes, not everyone will be disarmed. It won't apply to police, the armed forces, private security agents, gun collectors, sportsmen, hunters and anyone who can show he has a gun because his life is in danger.
Disarmament also wouldn't mean confiscation of guns and ammunition bought before the referendum, although it will restrict a Brazilian's right to carry a gun.
Gun stores are reporting a sharp increase in demand as the deadline approaches.
"I've had this store 16 years," Vera Ratti, owner of the Interarmas gun shop, told the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. "If 'yes' wins in the referendum, I'll close."
Then a young woman tells viewers that banning guns won't stop violence, and that she won't give up her constitutional right to bear arms. If Brazil outlaws guns, she warns, only outlaws will have guns.
Latin America's largest country is debating: Should the sale of guns and ammunition be prohibited in Brazil?
On October 23, Brazilians will give their answer.
More than 100 million Brazilians are expected to vote, in a referendum the government calls the world's biggest. Brazilians as young as 16 can vote, and voting is compulsory for citizens from 18 to 70.
And the issue has touched a nerve in this country, where gun violence is a fact of daily life.
"People here use guns so often, for any reason," said Dr. Zilda Arns, a founder of the Catholic Church-linked Children's Pastoral and a campaigner for abolition. "They regret it later, but then it's too late."
Unofficial polls show a majority of Brazilians favor abolition -- and statistics indicate they have reason to be alarmed.
About 39,000 people in Brazil are killed by guns each year, or about four an hour.
According to UNESCO, Brazil ranks second in deaths by guns, with 21.72 per 100,000 people a year. Venezuela proportionately has more, with 34.30 per 100,000, but Brazil is tops in absolute numbers.
More than one in every 11 Brazilians has a gun, says the Institute of Religious Studies or ISER, an independent research group based in Rio. That's about 17 million guns in a nation of 183 million.
Today, many Brazilians use guns because of rising urban crime. Heavily armed drug gangs control Rio's shantytowns, or favelas, and regularly engage in gunfights with outmanned and outgunned police.
Part of the sprawling Mare shantytown has been dubbed the Gaza Strip because of the constant shooting, and the Red Line -- the road to Rio's international airport and a major city avenue by day -- at night becomes a no man's land, with drivers avoiding random gunfire from nearby favelas.
Abolitionists points to successful examples of disarmament in other countries. In Australia, where the right to bear guns became a "privilege" a decade ago, the number of deaths from firearms was cut in half over five years.
Japan, which has a similar law, registers only about 30 gun-related killings a year -- fewer than in an average weekend in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city.
But the pro-gun lobby insists the referendum is a violation of citizens' rights. And their hard-hitting campaign is winning more support than abolitionists expected.
"I won't relinquish my right. The state won't tell me what to do," said law professor Adilson Dallari, a leader of the gun supporters.
Sao Paulo state legislator Ubiratan Guimaraes, a former state police colonel, called the referendum an "aberration."
"As long as we don't have an efficient border police, until we have better public security, it's cowardice to deny a citizen the right to defend himself," Guimaraes said on his web site. "This country still has the right to private property."
Guimaraes made headlines for leading repression of a 1992 uprising in Carandiru prison, recently closed. Police killed 111 inmates, and Guimaraes is appealing a prison sentence of 632 years.
Manufacturers also are up in arms.
"It's a mistake the size of Brazil," gun maker Taurus said in a statement. "The decision will have very little impact on reducing violence or crime."
The company's sales would likely be affected if the referendum passes. The Rio-based rights group Viva Rio calculates that 90,000 jobs linked to the manufacture and sale of guns could be lost.
Abolitionists say the pro-gun lobby plays on Brazilian fears that domestic industry would be supplanted by the United States. "One of the media programs said the real interest behind the gun campaign is that the United States wants to sell more weapons, destroy Brazil's gun industry and take over the Amazon," said Jessica Galeria of the International Action Network on Small Arms.
In 2004, Brazil tried to reduce the guns in circulation with a buyback program and collected some 350,000 handguns, rifles and shotguns. Health Ministry figures showed gun deaths fell 8 percent in a year.
But even if the referendum passes, not everyone will be disarmed. It won't apply to police, the armed forces, private security agents, gun collectors, sportsmen, hunters and anyone who can show he has a gun because his life is in danger.
Disarmament also wouldn't mean confiscation of guns and ammunition bought before the referendum, although it will restrict a Brazilian's right to carry a gun.
Gun stores are reporting a sharp increase in demand as the deadline approaches.
"I've had this store 16 years," Vera Ratti, owner of the Interarmas gun shop, told the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. "If 'yes' wins in the referendum, I'll close."
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