New gun club opens every day in Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil as weapons become key election issue
It is a quiet street in a fairly tough part of Sao Paulo, but the sound of high velocity weapons firing and the thud of rounds impacting every few seconds is somewhat disconcerting.
We ring the doorbell of an innocuous-looking building; after a few minutes the thick metal door opens, and we are greeted by a man wearing a smart black jacket over body armour.
He motions us inside and the door shuts. In front of us, another metal door slides open and the sound of shooting greets us through a cloud of barbecue-smelling smoke.
This is the G-16 gun club and it’s open 24 hours a day. It’s lunchtime and the BBQ, included in the membership fee, is on outside.
In the Brazil of President Jair Bolsonaro, gun clubs have been opening at the astonishing rate of one a day for the past four years.
The atmosphere is friendly but businesslike. At desks people fill out their forms for gun licences. Milling about, with pistols in holsters and dressed in military gear, the members and trainers prepare for the firing ranges dotted about the building.
Machine guns line the walls and handguns sit on display cabinets.
A young woman explains that people with licences can buy and take away the handguns, but they have to order the assault rifles.
“Or you can borrow them while you’re here and use them on the range,” she adds with a beaming smile.
Private gun ownership has rocketed under the right-wing government of Mr Bolsonaro.
He and his supporters contest that bearing arms is a fundamental right, although, unlike the United States, this isn’t actually mentioned in Brazil’s constitution.
‘Bolsonaro is a gun enthusiast’
The burly owner of the G-16 club, Gustavo Pazzini, is proud of how much his business has grown in the past few years. He started with one club, and he now has four with 12,000 members.
He is an unabashed Bolsonaro supporter – the president’s picture hangs in the club’s foyer.
“Bolsonaro is a gun enthusiast, a military man, a pro-freedom politician, and he managed to make some changes, and this has generally heated up the market, and it has rekindled the dreams of Brazilians who are gun enthusiasts and like guns.”
It’s a big booming growth sector and is another key issue in this desperately tight election battle.
Brazilians will head to the polls next Sunday for a second round vote after both Mr Bolsonaro and his rival Lula da Silva failed to secure enough votes for an outright win.
The highly polarised vote will determine whether the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-biggest democracy or keeps the far-right leader in office for another four years.
In what is arguably the country’s most critical election since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985, Mr da Silva of the leftist Workers’ Party won 48.26% of votes and Mr Bolsonaro secured 43.34%.
The owner of the G-16 club, Gustavo Pazzini
Threat of election-linked violence
An hour or so outside Sao Paulo, we pulled off the main road and drove towards a series of port-a-cabins on the edge of a big open space.
Even in our car the sound of machine gun fire, pump action shotguns and revolvers was really loud.
This is the Assault shooting range, a sort-of country club for amateur gun users and a training ground for police and more serious gun club enthusiasts dressed in matching uniforms, keen to learn battlefield craft like the military.
There is fear that Bolsonaro-supporting groups will fashion themselves on America’s Trump-supporting gun carriers.
That fear has been highlighted by the closeness of the election and the threat of election-linked violence.
But a day out at the Assault shooting range is also something of a family affair.
The Stopa family together on the shooting range
‘I think it’s cool’
All the generations of the Stopa family are on the range with a variety of weapons and an instructor showing them how to use them all.
Eighteen-year-old Georgia is firing a weapon for the first time today.
“I think it’s so cool, I’m very happy,” she told us excitedly after firing the shotgun.
Her proud mum took pictures the whole time.
Their instructor is deadly serious but there are laughs and smiles throughout the lesson.
The Assault club’s owner, a former police officer, has no doubts that anything but a Bolsonaro win will be bad for him and his business.
President Bolsonaro has used executive powers to relax the country’s previously stringent gun laws imposed by his electoral adversary Mr da Silva.
“People worry about Lula’s return to government, of course, if his first attitude is to disarm the population. The more insecure, the more disarmed and the more illiterate the population is, the better it is for them,” the club owner explained to me.
On our way back from Assault, we stopped off at one of the country’s biggest gun shops.
ISA comes complete with an upscale café restaurant and is pristine inside, with mood lighting and glass cabinets full of gleaming weapons of every description.
Clovis Aguiar shows off weapons he has imported
This is a very successful business, and it has blossomed under Mr Bolsonaro.
The gun shop’s owner told us he clears £1.7m every month.
Clovis Aguiar showed Jorge Seif, a Bolsonaro-supporting senator who is a big player in politics here, weapons he has imported from his factory in Israel.
I asked the senator if he would like one of the weapons – yes, he enthusiastically replied, laughing.
Senator Jorge Seif is confident of election victory
Mr Seif is confident that Mr Bolsonaro will win, and says if he does, and they control the senate, they will change the gun laws permanently.
“When a socialist government, a dictator government, an oppressive government comes to power, their first action is to disarm the population,” he said, referring to Lula da Silva’s Worker’s Party.
“But President Bolsonaro shows his commitment to the Brazilian people, right? Above all he respects democracy because he trusts his population when he gives them the right to buy firearms.”
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Mr da Silva and his supporters say that having more guns in a country that already has a terrible record for crime is at best reckless.
Mr Bolsonaro’s followers disagree, arguing guns allow people to protect themselves.
Like so many things in this election, they will never agree.
World
Body pulled from mine after police cut off supplies to ‘smoke out’ thousands of illegal miners
A body has been recovered from a South African mine after police cut off basic supplies in an effort to force around 4,000 illegal miners to resurface.
The body has emerged from the closed gold mine in the northwest town of Stilfontein a day after South Africa’s government said it would not help the illegal miners.
Around 20 people have surfaced from the mineshaft this week as police wait nearby to arrest all those appearing from underground.
It comes a day after a cabinet minister said the government was trying to “smoke them [the miners] out”.
The move is part of the police’s “Close the Hole” operation, whereby officers cut off supplies of food, water and other basic necessities to get those who have entered illegally to come out.
Local reports suggest the supply routes were cut off at the mine around two months ago, with relatives of the miners seen in the area as the stand-off continues.
Relatives of miners and community members wait at the mine shaft. Pic: AP
A decomposed body was brought up on Thursday, with pathologists on the scene, police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said.
It comes after South African cabinet minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters on Wednesday that the government would not send any help to the illegal miners, known in the country as zama zamas, because they are involved in a criminal act.
“We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. Criminals are not to be helped; criminals are to be prosecuted. We didn’t send them there,” Ms Ntshavheni said.
An aerial view of a mineshaft. Pic: AP
Senior police and defence officials are expected to visit the area on Friday to “reinforce the government’s commitment to bringing this operation to a safe and lawful conclusion”, according to a media advisory from the police.
In the last few weeks, over 1,000 miners have surfaced at various mines in South Africa’s North West province, where police have cut off supplies.
Many of the miners were reported to be weak, hungry and sickly after going for weeks without basic supplies.
Illegal mining remains common in South Africa’s old gold-mining areas, with miners going into closed shafts to dig for any possible remaining deposits.
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Relatives of miners and community members wait near the mine shaft. Pic: AP
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The illegal miners are often from neighbouring countries, and police say the illegal operations involve larger syndicates that employ the miners.
Their presence in closed mines has also created problems with nearby communities, which complain that the illegal miners commit crimes ranging from robberies to rape.
Illegal mining groups are known to be heavily armed and disputes between rival groups sometimes result in fatal confrontations.
World
Ukrainian frontline commander warns: ‘The world is scared of Russia and losing is not only our problem’
In the courtyard of a farmhouse now home to soldiers of the Ukrainian army’s 47th mechanised brigade, I’m introduced to a weary-looking unit by their commander Captain Oleksandr “Sasha” Shyrshyn.
We are about 10km from the border with Russia, and beyond it lies the Kursk region Ukraine invaded in the summer – and where this battalion is now fighting.
The 47th is a crack fighting assault unit.
They’ve been brought to this area from the fierce battles in the country’s eastern Donbas region to bolster Ukrainian forces already here.
War latest: Russia ready to carry out ‘massive attack’
The captain known by his men as ‘Genius’
In the summer, Ukraine launched an incursion into Russian territory, in Kursk
Captain Shyrshyn explains that among the many shortages the military has to deal with, the lack of infantry is becoming a critical problem.
Sasha is just 30 years old, but he is worldly-wise. He used to run an organisation helping children in the country’s east before donning his uniform and going to war.
He is famous in Ukraine and is regarded as one of the country’s top field commanders, who isn’t afraid to express his views on the war and how it’s being waged.
His nom de guerre is ‘Genius’, a nickname given to him by his men.
Captain Sasha Shyrshyn and Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay
‘Don’t worry, it’s not a minefield’
Sasha invited me to see one of the American Bradley fighting vehicles his unit uses.
We walk down a muddy lane before he says it’s best to go cross-country.
“We can go that way, don’t worry it’s not a minefield,” he jokes.
He leads us across a muddy field and into a forest where the vehicle is hidden from Russian surveillance drones that try to hunt both American vehicles and commanders.
Sasha shows me a picture of the house they had been staying in only days before – it was now completely destroyed after a missile strike.
Fortunately, neither he, nor any of his men, were there at the time.
“They target commanders,” he says with a smirk.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
‘The world is scared of Russia’
It takes me a moment or two to realise we are only a few steps away from the Bradley, dug in and well hidden beneath the trees.
The disguised American Bradley vehicle hidden in the forest
Sasha tells me the Bradley is the finest vehicle he has ever used.
A vehicle so good, he says, it’s keeping the Ukrainian army going in the face of Russia’s overwhelming numbers of soldiers.
He explains: “Almost all our work on the battlefield is cooperation infantry with the Bradley. So we use it for evacuations, for moving people from one place to another, as well as for fire-covering.
“This vehicle is very safe and has very good characteristics.”
The American Bradley fighting vehicle that Ukrainian soldiers have found vital in their efforts
Billions of dollars in military aid has been given to Ukraine by the United States, and this vehicle is one of the most valuable assets the US has provided.
Ukraine is running low on men to fight, and the weaponry it has is not enough, especially if it can’t fire long-range missiles into Russia itself – which it is currently not allowed to do.
If President-elect Donald Trump cuts the supply of military aid, the Ukrainians will lose – it’s that simple.
US President-elect Donald Trump has been clear he intends to change his nation’s policy on the war in Ukraine. Pic: Reuters
Sasha says: “We have a lack of weapons, we have a lack of artillery, we have a lack of infantry, and as the world doesn’t care about justice, and they don’t want to finish the war by our win, they are afraid of Russia.
“I’m sorry but they’re scared, they’re scared, and it’s not the right way.”
Like pretty much everyone in Ukraine, Sasha is waiting to see what the US election result will mean for his country.
He is sceptical about a deal with Russia.
“Our enemy only understands the language of power. And you cannot finish the war in 24 hours, or during the year without hard decisions, without a fight, so it’s impossible. It’s just talking without results,” he tells me.
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‘Losing will be not only our problem’
These men expect the fierce battles inside Kursk to intensify in the coming days.
Indeed, alongside the main supply route into Kursk, workers are already building new defensive positions – unfurling miles of razor wire and digging bunkers for the Ukrainian army if it finds itself in retreat.
Barbed wire rolled out in the Sumy region ahead of expected fighting
Tank traps in the Sumy region
Sasha and his men are realistic about support fatigue from the outside world but will keep fighting to the last if they have to.
“I understand this is only our problem, it’s only our issue, and we have to fight this battle, like we have to defend ourselves, it’s our responsibility,” Sasha said.
But he points out everyone should realise just how critical this moment in time is.
“If we look at it widely, we have to understand that us losing will be not only our problem, but it will be for all the world.”
Stuart Ramsay reports from northeastern Ukraine with camera operator Toby Nash, and producers Dominique Van Heerden, Azad Safarov, and Nick Davenport.
A weather warning has been issued for parts of Spain, as the country counts the cost of recent flooding.
The orange warnings are in place for parts of southwestern Spain – the area around Seville down towards Gibraltar.
Up to 8cm (3ins) of rain could fall within 12 hours, but the weekend looks much more settled in the country.
The latest warnings come just two weeks after flash flooding in Valencia and other parts of the country killed more than 200 people.
Malaga saw 14.2cm (5.6ins) of rainfall on Wednesday – Spain’s highest of the day – most of which fell in six hours.
All train services were halted in Malaga. Some flights have now resumed after the initial disruption.
Pic: Jamie Marchant
Emergency services in the province have moved 3,000 people from homes at risk of flooding close to the Guadalhorce River in the west of the city.
Jamie Marchant, 29, from Caerphilly in South Wales travelled to Malaga last Wednesday.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
He told Sky News that “debris” had been left behind by the recent rainfall in the region.
“Everyone is pitching in to clean up and some shops are opening as usual,” he added.
Orange warnings for the Valencia region in eastern Spain expired earlier on Thursday.
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The adverse weather could lead to total insured losses of more than €4bn (£3.33bn), according to credit rating agency Morningstar DBRS.
Much of the claims are expected to be covered by the Spanish government’s insurance pool, the agency said, but insurance premiums are likely to increase.
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