Venezuela May Tighten Gun Laws as Growing Violence Becomes Campaign Issue

Venezuela’s National Assembly may tighten restrictions on gun ownership as escalating crime, particularly in the capital Caracas, becomes a political issue ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for later this month.

Lawmakers will pass a measure in the next few days to prohibit carrying weapons in public, ban those younger than 25 from owning a gun, and limit the number of bullets a person can carry to 25, the government said today in a statement. The National Assembly is controlled by allies of President Hugo Chavez.

Crime has become a focus of campaigning for the Sept. 26 elections. The government accused newspaper El Nacional of “journalistic pornography” last month for publishing photographs of cadavers piled up in the Caracas morgue and banned it from publishing violent images.

Homicides increased 10 percent last year in Venezuela to 16,047, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, a research group. The state-controlled National Institute of Statistics found there were 21,132 homicides in Venezuela in 2009. Chavez has blamed high levels of crime on capitalism, television and violent video games.

Venezuela’s current gun laws, dating back to 1928, have no age restrictions on owning a firearm and don’t limit the number of bullets a person can own.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charlie Devereux in Caracas at cdevereux3@bloomberg.net.

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