Brazil leads ranking of deaths by gunshot among most populous countries

07/03/2013 - 09h08

Brazil has the most deaths by gunshot among the 12 most populous countries in the world (36,792 deaths by gunshot in 2010; the runner-up, Mexico, had 17,561).

Regarding firearm violence, Brazil, the country of the "cordial man," is ahead of very populous countries such as China and India in relative and absolute figures. The data are in the "2013 Map of Violence," which analyzes the 2010 data of the Ministry of Health.

Studies published last year on the violence that affects young and black people were based on the same data.

The coordinator of the research, sociologist Julio Jacobo Waiselfisz, says Brazil has an average of 19 deaths by gunshot per 100,000 residents.

But many states were above 30 deaths, such as Espirito Santo, Bahia, Paraíba and Pernambuco. The average in Alagoas is more than twice that of Brazil: 55.3.

Four cities had an average above 100 deaths by gunshots per 100,000 residents.

Two are in Bahia, Simões Filho and Lauro de Freitas. The two others are in Paraná (Campina Grande do Sul and Guaíra). The states with the lowest levels, less than 10 per 100,000 residents, are São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Piauí and Roraima.

Waiselfisz says Brazil's high level is due to three reasons: easy access to firearms, the culture of violence - "many people believe it is normal to settle an interpersonal dispute with guns" - and the current high levels of impunity.

ARSENAL

Waiselfisz also says the number of firearms in the hands of the population reaches 15.3 million (6.8 million are registered while 8.5 million are not), confirming how easy and uncontrolled the access to firearms is.

As a cause for the feeling of impunity, he cites the "very low" number of solved homicides in Brazil, which vary between 5% and 8% of the total deaths. In the U.S. the percentage is 65%, in the U.K., 90% and in France, 80%.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO