Comments for Brazil to Spend US$ 88 Million on Referendum on Firearms at http://www.brazzilmag.com , comment 0 to 3 out of 3 comments http://www.brazzilmag.com Sun, 20 Jul 2008 01:49:01 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/3402/1/#pc_860 No offense but what does a new zealander knows about violence? I\'m brazilian, I live in Rio and I\'m sick and tired of that idiotic pseudo-security crap. I\'ll vote YES on October 23rd. - Guest Mon, 03 Oct 2005 13:24:21 +0100 http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/3402/1/#pc_849 Responding to Dr Lech Beltowski, in fact, there is a UNESCO\'s work recently published that clearly show that argument against guns are in right direction. This study showed that with disarming programm of Government reduced in 15,4% the homicide rates in Brazil, this means 5.563 spared lifes. It was first time in 13 years that this rate falls. - Guest Fri, 30 Sep 2005 12:42:39 +0100 http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/3402/1/#pc_481 Dear Sir; It seems clear that many individuals within the political and intellectual elite of Brazil have done very little research on gun control and its effects. As usual, it is precisely such people who appear to have the strongest and most extreme opinions and \"solutions\". Had they taken the trouble to study well-constructed criminological studies written by competent academics, they would have found- probably to their surprise- that the relationship between the availability of legal guns and crime is actually inverse. In other words, violent crime does not fall but actually increases as the number of legal guns is reduced. My recent review of gun control and homicides (\"How Governments cause crime\")confirms this and allows the prediction that -contrary to the naive and optimistic thinking of those supporting the gun-free referendum- the outcome for ordinary Brazilians will be a rapid and very significant worsening in murders and other violent crimes. If the experience of other countries with gun prohibition is any guide, Brazil can expect at least a DOUBLING of its murder rate in much less than a decade. Given this well-documented if poorly known fact it is surely important to future-proof the Brazilian referedum and ask each of its high profile proponents whether they accept personal liability in law to the families of victims should murders rates increase significantly as predicted A clear statement as to what compensation they would be prepared to pay should their brave new world turn out to be far worse than our present one should be a pre-requisite of holding the referendum. It is surely high time the political and social elites of Brazil were shown that the long-suffering Brazilian taxpayer is no longer prepared to pay the social and financial costs of such naive and disproven social engineering Yours sincerely Dr Lech Beltowski Auckland New Zealand PS; Dear editor; Please e-mail me at lechb@adhb.govt.nz for a copy of \"How Governments cause crime\". - Guest Wed, 03 Aug 2005 17:02:36 +0100