Brazil’s center-left president signed an executive order on Friday aimed at limiting citizens’ access to guns, which was eased during the days of his far-right predecessor.

“We will continue the fight to have fewer guns in our country. The only ones who should be well armed are the police and the military,” said Mr Luis Inacio Lula da Silva presenting in Brasilia a series of measures aimed at reducing violent crime in Latin America’s largest country.

Taking measures to limit the proliferation of weapons and reduce violence was a campaign promise of Lula.

The “responsible gun control” ordinance reduces the number of guns allowed for legal defense from four to two; any person who wants to buy more must certify that they have a genuine need for them.

Hunters, sportsmen and collectors, grouped into a category with the acronym CACs, will be eligible to own up to six guns, up from 30 allowed by an executive order signed during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022).

There will also be restrictions on the purchase of ammunition.

The new presidential decree limits the operating hours of shooting ranges and stipulates that they must be at a distance of at least one kilometer from school buildings.

Shooting ranges have boomed in recent years as the pursuit of shooting has become synonymous with the possibility of a large number of guns legally.

According to the NGO Instituto Sou da Paz, more than a million guns were registered in the CACs, almost three times the 350,000 in December 2018, a month before Jair Bolsonaro took office.

Citizens registered as gun owners rose to nearly 800,000 from 117,467 in 2018, when he was elected.

The decree signed by President Lula is “a step forward to return to standards of accountability and legal certainty for gun control in Brazil,” the non-governmental organization said in a statement.

Another important change foreseen in the text: the registry of all CACs will progressively come under the control of the federal police, no longer the military.

The Lula government also presented yesterday a draft law that toughens the penalties for cases of violence in schools.

The country was repeatedly plunged into mourning due to attacks in school institutions in the first half of the year.

According to a report published yesterday Thursday by the Brazilian Forum for Public Security (FBSP), in 2022 there will be 47,508 homicides in the giant country, or more than five per hour on average.

Their number decreased slightly year-on-year (–2.4%) and from the all-time high of 64,078 homicides recorded in 2017.