Hunters, shooters, and collectors — known in Brazil by the acronym CAC — have taken advantage of the arms decrees published by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to carry weapons even when they are not on their way to shooting or hunting locations.
Folha had access to police reports from the PRF (Federal Highway Police) in which members of the category were caught carrying weapons on irregular routes, even in states where they have no residence. There are also cases in which people are caught armed after using alcohol or drugs.
Until April, there were 605,000 CACs with active registration in the Army and 884,000 weapons in the hands of the group, as computed in Sigma (Military Weapons Management System), managed by the Force. The same person can have more than one record under their name, which brings the total number of certificates in the category up to 1.2 million.
Due to the lenience of the Bolsonaro government to facilitate access to weapons, CACs are now allowed to carry weapons on the way between their place of residence and the place of practice, such as shooting clubs, without any restriction of route or schedule. Specialists warn that, in practice, this flexibility has become an authorization for the informal carrying of weapons. The bulletins accessed by Folha corroborate this assessment.
Translated by Cassy Dias