Antechamber of the Bullet Caucus: Arguments against the Statute of Disarmament (2003)

Abstract

The causes for the persistence of high levels of violence in Latin America, and particularly in Brazil, must be sought by combining material and symbolic elements. This paper focuses on the latter, analyzing how discourses mobilized by conservative parliamentarians shape a worldview that demands the use of force as a mechanism for resolving social conflicts. In order to achieve this objective, the statements against the Disarmament Statute, the arms control legislation approved in 2003, were selected. As part of these discussions, the group that would come to be known as the “bullet caucus” began to took shape, in which the current president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, participated.