How Brazil Exploited Sexual Insecurity to Curb Guns

[SecularMotion]

Brazil has a gun culture, a gun industry and a gun problem -- much like the U.S. In fact, more Brazilians than Americans died of gunfire in 2010. Yet Brazil's 2010 tally, 34,300 deaths, was significantly lower than its gun fatalities in 2003 (39,284), when the government enacted major gun-control regulation. I asked Brazilian political scientist Antonio Bandeira, who coordinates the arms-control program of Viva Rio, a nongovernmental organization in Rio De Janeiro, how the campaign for gun regulation succeeded in Brazil.

Q: What strategy did you adopt?

A: We decided to work with civil society, to build pressure to apply to parliament. First, we had to prove in scientific terms that gun control was necessary to improve public security. Brazil had more deaths caused by firearms than any other nation. In Rio de Janeiro, my team of experts was able to access and evaluate data on 720,000 guns seized by the police.

Our analysis destroyed many myths. For example, most people believed that narcotrafficantes used mainly foreign guns. We proved that 90 percent of illegal guns were Brazilian-made. People believed criminals relied on high-caliber weapons. We proved that 88 percent of guns used in crimes were revolvers or pistols.We also demonstrated that guns are good for attacking, but not for self-defense. (The surprise factor is the attacker's advantage.)

In addition, we found that most gun deaths were committed with legal guns, by previously law-abiding citizens -- and not by organized criminals. The perpetrators of gun violence are husbands shooting wives, neighbors shooting neighbors, employees firing at bosses, children's accidents, suicides, etc. All put together, they largely surpass homicides perpetrated by organized crime.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-08/how-brazil-exploited-sexual-insecurity-to-curb-guns-an-interview-with-antonio-bandeira.html

[gejohnston]

1. which has what to do with the US?

Their "science" failed. Their murder rate is five times ours.
http://chartsbin.com/view/1454
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

[SecularMotion]

2. Brazil doesn't have the NRA

Unlike the NRA, our gun lobby doesn't produce fake research, so there was a contrast between our arguments, based on scientific knowledge, and the industry myths.

[gejohnston]

3. when did the Joyce Foundation become the NRA?

the NRA doesn't do fake research or any other research for that matter. So, he is making shit up. The gun control groups do, usually paid for by the Joyce Foundation. Most of which have been debunked by independent researchers, like the "43 times more likely" myth.

Since the "scientific knowledge" was written by the supporters and not by independent researchers, his claims requires a very big grain of salt.

but their murder rate is still five times ours. Ours is still dropping.

[SecularMotion]

4. So you don't think this approach will work in the US?

Q: But you also tried to stigmatize guns, even identifying them as a symbol of masculine insecurity. A popular actress equated gun possession with "a little problem" -- insinuating that men are attracted to guns in order to compensate for sexual inadequacy.

A: The use of guns is basically a male problem. In our societies, men subscribe to the old model of "warrior men" and to rural customs characterized by the use of force to solve problems. Movies keep alive the old macho model of masculinity. This backward tradition is reinforced by men's feelings of impotence in a hypercompetitive society. If they also have sexual insecurities, guns can make them feel stronger, more potent; with a gun, they will not be "naked."

One of our most successful media campaigns ironically associated sexual insecurity with the glorification of guns. Pretty and popular actresses said, "Good lovers don't need a gun." We deconstructed machismo, using the slogan "Choose Gun Free! It's Your Weapon or Me!" Young people loved it.

We also found that most men who handed in their guns had been influenced by women (mother, grandmother, lover). So we launched another movement, under the slogan "Mothers, Disarm your Sons!" These were specific actions to attenuate the devastating influence of the culture of violence disseminated though movies, TV and video games produced in your country.

[gejohnston]

5. No, and I doubt such nonsense is working there

So gang bangers are listening to their mothers? I notice you are not addressing their fact that their murder rate is even worse than Mexico's.
I'm guessing you are part of the 75 percent.

Many scholars have suggested that Americans' positions on gun control are the product of culture conflicts. This assertion has been largely based on associations of gun control opinion with membership in social groups believed to be hostile, or favorable, towards gun ownership, rather than with direct measures of the cultural traits thought to mediate the effects of group membership on gun control opinion. Data from a 2005 national telephone survey were analyzed to test competing theories of why people support handgun bans. Instrumental explanations, which stress belief in a policy's likely effectiveness, accounted for less than 25 percent of the variation in support. The results supported the culture conflict perspective. Those who endorsed negative stereotypes about gun owners, and who did not believe in the need to defend their own homes against crime (versus relying on the police) were more likely to support handgun bans.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235209000932

[SecularMotion]

6. Who's talking about banning handguns?

[spin]

7. Perhaps the ghost of Richard Nixon. ...

Nixon wished for total handgun ban
By Fred Frommer-Associated Press Saturday, March 9, 2013

WASHINGTON — Few presidents in modern times have been as interested in gun control as Richard Nixon, of all people. He proposed ridding the market of Saturday night specials, contemplated banning handguns altogether and refused to pander to gun owners by feigning interest in their weapons.

Several previously unreported Oval Office recordings and White House memos from the Nixon years show a conservative president who at times appeared willing to take on the National Rifle Association, a powerful gun lobby then as now, even as his aides worried about the political ramifications.

“I don’t know why any individual should have a right to have a revolver in his house,” Nixon said in a taped conversation with aides. “The kids usually kill themselves with it and so forth.” He asked why “can’t we go after handguns, period?”

Nixon went on: “I know the rifle association will be against it, the gun makers will be against it.” But “people should not have handguns.” He laced his comments with obscenities, as was typical.

Read more: http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/9/nixon-wished-total-handgun-ban/#ixzz2N537EtZV
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

[gejohnston]

8. gun control in general.

FWIW, the drop in murder rate was after increased oversight over cops. Fewer cops were committing murder.

[Eleanors38]

10. "Stigmatization" and "sexual inadequacy." We know what many U.S. gun-banners want to focus on...

So why did you have to go all the way to Brazil to get support for your "studies?" Oh, wait! It was a Bloomie screed, where the NYC honcho has at least 2 "compensators" with him at all times.

[SecularMotion]

9. NRA's "Media Misinformation" Series Pushes Systemically False Information About Gun Violence

National Rifle Association News host Cam Edwards has taken on a media critic role to allege that news reports linking firearms to public safety concerns are inaccurate. The series of rebuttals offered by Edwards on his show Cam & Company, however, are rife with outright falsehoods and are debunked by peer reviewed research.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/02/26/nras-media-misinformation-series-pushes-systemi/192799

[Eleanors38]

11. Does Mediamatters still employ armed bodyguard(s)?

[SecularMotion]

13. Anything to offer besides tired NRA talking points?

Yawn

[Eleanors38]

14. Sorry, but mechanically rattlin' off "NRAtalkingpoints" only demonstrates your own intellectual

bankruptcy. You seem offended by anyone pointing out mediamatter's sprawling hypocrisy.

[sylvi]

15. When a grabnut says "NRA talking point"...

...it translates to, "I don't have a fucking clue how to counter what you just posted, so I'll try to distract and smear you instead by insinuating that you're aligned with a conservative group."

[SecularMotion]

16. More noise from the NRAbots

yawn

[friendly_iconoclast]

17. Ah, let 'em use their incantation- it lets them think they've acheived something tangible...

It's the gun Prohibitionist version of "gruss Gott" or "Inshallah". They cling to articles of their faith, like
the one where everyone that opposes them is working for or agrees with the NRA...

[SecularMotion]

18. Smearing anyone who supports gun control as a prohibitionist is NRA noise.

[gejohnston]

19. to what degree?

since federal gun control has been around since 1927 (could say 1919 with the federal sales tax, which has been paying for wildlife restoration and conservation since 1937). State laws since about the 1830s when slave states started passing laws against concealed carry (Georgia banned handguns in 1840, but was struck down by the SCOTUS a couple of years later as violating the 2A).

[friendly_iconoclast]

20. I've yet to see any of you lot explicitly renounce Prohibition here.

Seems the ones that aren't declared Prohibitionists go the "we just want to ban dangerous guns" route.
Trouble is, you keep changing the definition of "dangerous" and never offer anything in return.

You just keep ratcheting up on the restrictions you want. So why should we relent?
You say 'no one wants to confiscate' guns- when they already have been confiscated in California.

[Eleanors38]

21. I think the banners are settling in on a strategy of stigmatization and smear...

Nothing particularly new, but it is increasingly shrill and nasty. To them, it's not the murder rate or even the deaths of children that motivates. It is some deep-seated hatred based on region, class, culture -- probably stemming from the animosities of the 60s & 70s. Great time period, but some folks are bent on a peculiar revenge, I guess.

[gejohnston]

12. Kleck's research was never debunked

in fact the American Society of Criminology awarded him the Michael J. Hindelang Award for that research.
Sounds like MM is the one pushing the misinformation.

[petronius]

22. Honestly, if a guy is willing to stop owning guns because a TV ad questioned his

penis size or a popular actress implied that she wouldn't date him, that's probably a good thing - he probably wasn't a good fit for gun ownership in the first place.

As for me, stigmatize all you* like, my choice of gun ownership is my own business, and won't be swayed by social tsk-ing...

(* That's the generic "you," not the OP specifically.)