Who's afraid of the plebiscite?
Consultations on weapons have the side effect of increasing public participation in major decision-making.
What's wrong with holding a plebiscite? The possibility of putting the issue of gun sales to a popular vote is currently on the agenda. But one could also ask whether Brazil is in favor of legalizing abortion; or, as Americans in the states of Arizona, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Tennessee did, whether hunting and fishing should be individual rights; or, looking at the population of Sweden, whether the country would adopt the euro as its currency (it didn't).
A plebiscite is direct democracy; is that what those who oppose this practice fear? Mobilizing society around issues that, due to unresolved concerns, deserve a clear "yes" or "no" shouldn't frighten anyone. The frank question, asked of rich and poor, people of all races, citizens in general, is one of the best instruments of modern democracies, with a strong power to raise political awareness. The problem is that it's done so sporadically in Brazil.
In the aforementioned United States, when people go to the polls, they rarely choose only who will be the next president. The ballot contains, state by state, a series of questions on issues important to those communities, which are decided at that very moment, based on a yes or no vote. This is one of the reasons why it has the greatest democracy in the world. In Europe, referendums are also commonplace, especially in countries with a social-democratic tradition. Here, we constantly praise these political systems, but many people, especially the more conservative ones, get very upset when people are asked what they think about this or that. It's the best way, after all, to let the status quo prevail – and conservatives want nothing more than for everything to always stay the same.
Another thing is that people love, they adore voting. Every day, on the internet, thousands of questions are asked and millions of answers are given spontaneously. In Big Brother Brazil, the most exciting moment, for those watching, is the elimination. By vote. In general, post-dictatorship, the most patriotic moments occur when people line up to vote. So let there be more lines of this kind, starting with the one that is already forming for October, when the people can take an important step towards disarming themselves.