Reply #30: In the last 10 years, 300,000 people have been killed in Brazil,

[billbuckhead]

Women in Brazil take a stand against guns



10,000 guns are destroyed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on International Day of Firearms Destruction, 9 July 2002. © Sandra Delgado

In the last 10 years, 300,000 people have been killed in Brazil, largely as a result of urban violence and the proliferation of guns in the country. While 24 men are killed for every one woman, every death leaves a grieving mother, wife, sister, girlfriend or friend. Now the women of Brazil are uniting to try to put an end to the terrifying escalation of violence and gun crime.

On Mother's Day, 13 May 2001, the Brazilian non-governmental organization (NGO) Viva Rio launched a campaign under the slogan "Arma Não! Ela Ou Eu." ("Choose gun-free! It's your weapon or me."). Their aim was to bring together women from all sections of Brazilian society to force the men of Brazil to give up their guns. At the launch, attended by actresses, journalists, artists, mothers who had lost their children and wives who had lost their husbands, white flowers were distributed together with pamphlets explaining that owning a gun does not guarantee the protection of your family, but rather puts them at greater risk.

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<http://web.amnesty.org/web/wire.nsf/February2003/brazil>

Why is it always the women who are the voice of reason?