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A stir was caused by the words of the former Minister of Defense and potential presidential candidate for National Renewal, Mario Desbordes, who defended the right of citizens to decide whether or not they want to have a firearm.
Desbordes’s words are given in a particularly complex context in terms of citizen security, since a few days ago there was a shooting in the Plaza de Maipú that left four people injured and one dead. And this week, a new confrontation in Barrio Meiggs with firearms left a 71-year-old businessman wounded in the right foot.
In this context, Desbordes – who in the past belonged to the Carabineros de Chile – was honest and, in an interview with Radio Universe, spoke out in favor of the “right of an honest citizen, who passes psychiatric controls, who meets all the requirements, so that at home he has a firearm if he believes that it is fit.”
In addition, the former RN member acknowledged that “I have two firearms, two pistols, and I know how to use them, and I have used them and I have shot. I have life experience of having used those weapons when I was being shot back.
Criticism was not long in coming. One of the first to reject this idea was Deputy Matías Walker (DC), who pointed out through his Twitter account that “the problem is not that honest people have a weapon, the problem is that these weapons end in the power of drug traffickers and criminals. Let’s not repeat the bad example of the US, let’s create a change. Chile must be disarmed. “
However, Desbordes himself responded, arguing on Twitter that “I invite you Matías to ask for the information, and verify how many weapons of the dozens seized in recent months, belonged to a citizen who was stolen. It sounds good, but it does not adjust to reality, the narco’s weapons do not come from private homes. “
The former Minister of State used the same social network to clarify his sayings. “Strict controls prior to acquiring a weapon, requiring preparation of those who buy, awareness of what it implies, but that cannot lead to honest people not being able to have a weapon in their home in a responsible manner. It is the criminals to who should remove the weapons! “.
This message was answered by the deputy of Social Convergence, Gabriel Boric, who pointed out that “weapons at home are more violence and death. It is not the solution, Mario.” His pair of Commons, Camila Rojas, responded along the same lines, stating that “no. Guns in the houses is more deaths and more violence.”
Chile 21: “Desbordes seeks to bring right-wing politics closer to Trump’s agenda”
For the executive director of Chile 21, Eduardo Vergara, Desbordes ignores the evidence that confirms that arming citizens increases violence.
Likewise, Vergara indicated that it is dangerous for an eventual presidential candidate to encourage these types of policies that “the only thing they will do is increase the legal market and along with it nurture arms crime.”
“The presidential candidate Desbordes ignores how the evidence shows that arming the citizenry increases not only the levels of violence, but also the accident rate. He forgets that in Chile homicides have increased 33% in the last year and that more than half they are with firearms. That there are communes like Las Condes with rates of about 150 guns per thousand inhabitants. “
Along these lines, he said that “proposals like these bring the right closer every day to the agenda of Donald Trump, who is the one who has encouraged the extreme right movements to arm themselves and use those weapons. We cannot use a country as a model. where killings, shootings and violence are the order of the day. “
Vergara wondered: “Is this what we should expect as part of the ruling party’s plan to stay in La Moneda? Will they end up arming Chileans against the incompetence of the Government to guarantee security? Will the proposal of a presidential candidate prevail? who admits having two guns in his house? “
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