Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Friday that "everyone should buy a rifle," sparking outrage in his country, which battles with one of the worse COVID-19 pandemic crises in the world.
RELATED:
Brazil's President Bolsonaro Furious Over Leaked Audio
"Everybody has to buy a rifle, damn it! The armed people will never be enslaved. I know it costs a lot. An idiot says: 'Ah, what you have to buy is beans,' if you don't want to, don't buy the rifle, but do not come to disturb whoever wants to buy it," Bolsonaro told reporters.
"In a country with more than half of the population under food insecurity and in the midst of a new increase in the price of food, gasoline, gas, and electricity; Bolsonaro."
In 2019 Bolsonaro approved a decree to facilitate the sale of arms, raising to six the number of weapons that civilians can have and up to 60 the amount of these lethal devices allowed to shooters and hunters.
Although Congress has modified some bills thus far, the Brazilian president has signed 11 bills and eight decrees to expand the arms sales market further. It is estimated that since these measures were implemented, an arm is sold in the South American country every three minutes.