CCJ approves project that authorizes states to legislate on firearms – News

04/24/2024 – 16:00

The Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Committee (CCJ) of the Chamber of Deputies approved, with 34 yes and 30 no votes, a complementary bill that authorizes the states and the Federal District to legislate on the possession and carrying of firearms for personal defense, sports practices and control of invasive alien species (PLP 108/23).

Presented by the president of the CCJ, deputy Caroline de Toni (PL-SC), the proposal still depends on analysis by the Chamber Plenary. According to the text, the permits for possession or possession granted will only be valid locally and will only serve people who are proven to reside in the state.

Rapporteur’s assessment
The opinion of the rapporteur, Deputy Delegate Paulo Bilynskyj (PL-SP), was favorable to the project and the substitute of the Public Security and Combating Organized Crime Commission.

The commission includes in the text a condition to allow states to legislate on the subject: the state must establish a weapons control system integrated with the National Public Security Information System (Sinesp), maintained by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

“The Federal Constitution granted the Union the exclusive competence to legislate on criminal law, as well as on war material, but it appears that it is possible for the Union to delegate competence to the states to legislate on specific issues relating to these matters”, assessed the rapporteur.

Furthermore, Bilynskyj argues that, due to regional peculiarities in Brazil, each state must decide on access to firearms for personal defense and shooting sports. “Nothing is better for the state than fulfilling the will of its inhabitants, but the left wants to centralize the individual’s freedom of defense in a single, communist entity,” he said.

Separate vote
Deputy Patrus Ananias (PT-MG) presented separate vote for the unconstitutionality of the proposal. According to the parliamentarian, the Constitution allows states and the DF to legislate on specific issues of war, but does not allow them to challenge federal legislation on firearms, the Disarmament Statute.

“States and DF can residually complement federal legislation, establishing procedures and standards for better application of legislation in their territories, without having a blank check to legislate differently and/or advance on matters that must comply with national legislation”, claimed.

According to Patrus, if the proposal is approved by parliamentarians, the constitutionality of the text will be questioned in the Federal Supreme Court (STF). “We are going to enter, of course, with due legal guidance to prevent a project like this, clearly contrary to life and in the service of violence”, he highlighted.

Controversy
The proposal caused controversy at the CCJ, and more than 20 deputies discussed the issue for almost four hours. Supporters of the text defended the right of citizens to carry firearms for personal defense, while critics argued that more firearms circulating in society increase violence instead of helping the population’s safety.

“The project simply gives the right to every responsible, law-abiding citizen to be armed to defend not only his life, that of his family, or his heritage, including against the dictatorships that are being implemented in this country,” he said. deputy Éder Mauro (PL-PA).

Representative Dandara (PT-MG) highlighted the danger, for women, of more men being in possession of firearms: “Forty-three percent of the perpetrators of feminicide were close to the victim and firearms caused more than 2,200 deaths of women in Brazil last year alone. Six femicides per day that were the result of firearms.”

Legal debate
Deputy Rubens Pereira Júnior (PT-MA) highlighted that the Constitution makes it clear that it is the exclusive competence of the Union to legislate on war material and that states can only legislate on specific issues of war material for military police and military fire departments.

“What the constitutional norm is saying: that, if authorized by Congress, the state governor can decide what type of weapon to buy for the police, can decide what type of military material to buy for firefighters, it is not saying that each state can practicing the general release”, he stressed.

He added that the Chamber wastes time discussing the matter, as the STF has already deliberated on the topic by analyzing several Direct Actions of Unconstitutionality. He cited ADI 5359, which ruled out the possibility of states and municipalities legislating on war material, as the Union has already legislated on the topic through the Disarmament Statute.

Representative Caroline de Toni, in turn, stated that she presented the proposal precisely because of the STF’s decisions in this type of action. According to her, the governor of Santa Catarina prepared a project to authorize the hunting of wild boars in the state, as the animals destroy plantations, and the constitutionality of the text was questioned in the Supreme Court, which understood that there was a lack of a complementary law to delegate this competence to the states. .

“The argument used by the left-wing deputy saying that direct actions of unconstitutionality will declare the complementary law unconstitutional is erroneous, because they recognize that there is a lack of a complementary law to delegate this competence”, he said.

Find out more about the processing of complementary bills

Report – Lara Haje
Editing – Ana Chalub