ABSTRACT
More than a million homicides have been committed over the past three decades in Brazil. About 670,000 people were victims of firearms, weapons that were also used in 34,000 suicides during this period; this level of incidence has made Brazil the 10th most violent country among the 46 nations in the Americas (UNODC, 2011, p. 23). What is the role of the prevalence of firearms in promoting lethal violence? In particular, how has their availability affected the increase in homicides in Brazil since 1980? The academic debate on the causal effect of firearms in the US intensified in the second half of the 1980s with the growth of violent crime. Several authors sought to highlight the causal relationship summarized in the phrase ‘more guns, more crimes’. 1
