'Should the commerce of arms and ammunition be prohibited in Brazil?'

The referendum is this Sunday and I am most likely to vote não which does not mean I am in favor of violence. In Brazil, it is already ilegal to carry a gun and extremely difficult to buy one - last year only about 5,000 weapons were comercialized in the country. Criminals do not shop for them retail.

The referendum has been manipulated to come across as a vote for Public Security - the biggest concern for brazilian citizens - and it's not. It has been politicized to the point that, unfortunatelly, voting against it "has become a protest against everything that is going on"

The commerce of arms is not the problem and the referendum is just a smoke screen.

On Oct. 23, Latin America's biggest country will vote in a referendum that asks a single direct question, 'Should the commerce of arms and ammunition be prohibited in Brazil?' While other countries have banned guns, supporters of both the yes and no positions here say that this is the first time anywhere in the world that the electorate is being called on to decide the issue.

The vote, in which participation is obligatory (shirkers will be fined), is meant to ratify a highly restrictive gun control law that went into effect at the end of 2003, which has made it extremely difficult for ordinary citizens to legally buy, sell or own guns and ammunition. That legislation's phased application called for this referendum to decide on an all-but-total limit." [New York Times]