Rio Orders Extraordinary Re-Registration of Police Restricted-Use Firearms

Overview

• The state decree, published Monday, July 27, requires all restricted-use weapons — fuzis, carabinas and submetralhadoras — that are ceded to other agencies or held by people or entities to be re-registered in a 30-day campaign.
• Forces must submit a report to the governor detailing how many weapons were recataloged or recollected, the irregularities found and proposals for periodic future recataloging.
• Authorities may demand physical presentation of weapons for inspection or ballistic testing and may remove armaments when legal justification, authorization or custody conditions are missing.
• The measure was prompted by a Federal Police operation that found a PM rifle in ex-mayor Márcio Canella’s car, a weapon the Military Police say was registered to sargento Alexandre Paixão da Silva Júnior and taken from PM reserve storage.
• Officials say the action is an internal administrative control limited to state patrimony and oversight, and it is meant to let oversight bodies such as the Ministério Público obtain current information and to prompt internal inquiries to continue.