Milei lowers age for gun possession in Argentina by decree
While his own officials show themselves in public with rifles and pistols, the far-right president has reduced the minimum age to bear arms from 21 to 18, bypassing parliament with an executive decision
In line with the preaching of the global far right, the government of Javier Milei is moving forward with the deregulation of access to firearms in Argentina. Last Monday, the president decreed a reduction in the minimum age for being a user: without any debate or the participation of Congress, Milei decided to lower the requirement from 21 to 18 years of age. At a time when high-ranking officials are seen on social media doing shooting practice or photographed with pistols and rifles, the executive is also promoting a law to “promote and facilitate” gun possession, among other measures that relax current controls. The Argentine Network for Disarmament has warned that the government’s rhetoric and decisions propose violence as a solution to conflicts and generate greater risks for people.
In Argentina, with a population of 46 million, there are just over a million registered gun users with 1.7 million authorized weapons. Security experts estimate, however, that there could be twice as many unregistered weapons.
The government’s main argument for lowering the minimum age for access to firearms is that, since 2009, the age of majority in Argentina is 18 and no longer 21. “From now on, those over 18 can be legitimate users of weapons,” said Milei’s Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, upon learning of the presidential decree. “At 16 years old, they have the right to vote. At 18, they can go to war, form a family or be members of a security force. And, although it may seem incredible, at any age they can choose a sex change that will mark them for life. So, why shouldn’t 18-year-olds be legitimate users or bearers of a weapon?” said Bullrich, who, on the other hand, is pushing to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 13 years old.
“Although the measure is in line with the change in the age of majority, it is also a very dangerous symbolic message,” says María Pia Devoto, coordinator of the Human Security Network in Latin America and the Caribbean and director of the Association for Public Policy Analysis. “At a time when public discourse on social media and in the media is tense, dominated by aggression and disdain for those who think differently, this measure may give many people the power to exercise violence,” she adds. “On the other hand, it is a decision that contradicts statistics, which show that the people who die the most from firearms are very young men.”
Julian Alfie, a member of the Argentine Network for Disarmament, points out that age restrictions for using weapons should not be linked “to whether or not one is of legal age, but to risk prevention. It is no coincidence that in countries like Brazil, the minimum age to access a firearm is 25 years old. Or that in some states in the United States it has been raised to 21 years old,” he explains. “The decision to extend access to young people aged 18, 19 and 20 does not take into account specific issues of this age group, such as the greater risk of suicide and accidents or impulsive decision-making.” Devoto agrees: “At 18, young people are still teenagers and have a very high degree of vulnerability.”
Towards “deregulation of the legal market”
Milei’s decree was not an isolated measure. When he was still a national lawmaker, he himself made explicit his position “in favor of the free bearing of weapons.” Although during last year’s election campaign he tried to conceal it, the platform of La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances), his party, proposed “the deregulation of the legal market” of firearms, in the same path taken by other far right politicians, such as Donald Trump in the United States or Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. His vice president, Victoria Villarruel, has publicized that she is a “legitimate user” of weapons and has demanded the right of “good citizens to defend themselves” against crimes. Last month, Villarruel visited the main private arms factory in Argentina, Bersa, and was photographed holding a rifle. Before their falling out, Milei and Villarruel appeared together aboard a war tank during a military parade.
The display of firearms is common among members of the government, lawmakers and activists. Milei’s main advisor, Santiago Caputo, was seen on social media taking shooting classes. The fondness for weapons of the Secretary of Religion, Nahuel Sotelo, is also public, as is, among others, the libertarian leader Daniel Parisini, who a few weeks ago launched the group Las Fuerzas del Cielo (The Forces of the Sky) and defined it as “the praetorian guard of President Javier Milei.”
Along with the removal of some controls on applications for new gun licenses and renewals, the government’s main initiative in this area has so far been a bill to “promote and facilitate legal and legitimate access to firearms ownership,” the Ministry of Security said.
The proposal, which has already been approved by the Chamber of Deputies and is awaiting consideration by the Senate, includes two objectives. On the one hand, it extends a plan for the voluntary surrender of weapons for destruction, in force in the country since 2007 and suspended since last December. On the other hand, it seeks to indiscriminately regularize weapons for civilian use that were not registered or whose registration has expired. Prosecutor Gabriel González Da Silva, in charge of the Specialized Unit for the Investigation of Illicit Crimes Related to Firearms, warned that the project implied “a kind of money laundering and technically a criminal amnesty” for “any person who tries to ‘launder’ firearms in Argentina.”
“The government’s decisions are worrying because they are made in a context of flexible access to firearms,” concludes Alfie, director of the Institute of Comparative Studies in Criminal and Social Sciences. “Argentina has had a restrictive policy on access to weapons; our society has always understood that the greater circulation of weapons increases the levels of violence and the risk that any conflict will end in death or serious injury. Today we see a government that promotes access to weapons, when the role of the state should be to communicate and raise awareness about its risks. What they are promoting is a more violent society.”
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