Brazil's firearm ownership booms, and gun laws loosen, under President Bolsonaro

A visitor holds a weapon during the Shot Fair Brasil, an arms exhibition held at the Expoville Conventions and Exhibitions Center in Joinville, Santa Catarina state, Brazil, on Aug. 5. (Albari Sosa/AFP via Getty Images)

RIO BONITO, Brazil — At a shooting range a man applying for a gun permit points a pistol and fires 10 shots at a human-shaped target 20 feet away. Nearly all the bullets hit the target's sweet spot in the middle of the torso.

The shooter, Wagner Carneiro, is a former Brazilian army sergeant. He explains that a man in a car asking for directions suddenly pointed a gun to his head and demanded his mobile phone. Now, the 40-year-old Carneiro wants a gun for himself.