The Federal Police (PF) are preparing to comb through the registers of 1.5 million weapons belonging to collectors, sports shooters and hunters, the so-called CAC. All Certificates of Firearms Registration (CRAF) issued before President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) took office for his third term will expire on July 21, 2026.
- Even with changes under Lula: CACs buy 1 million rounds of rifle ammunition in 6 months and represent 2/3 of the market
- After delays: The federal police replace the army in the surveillance of CACs with reduced staff and the promise of more rigor
A new system will be launched by the PF at the beginning of next year to speed up the verification of information transmitted by the CACs. Now, it will be cross-referenced with data on indictments, convictions, open arrest warrants and police reports.
As established by a presidential decree, the gradual migration of the control system from the Army category to the PF was completed at the end of 2025. The police estimated that the military did not have access to civil police and court databases, for example, which allowed the granting of licenses to CACs convicted of crimes such as drug trafficking, homicide and domestic violence, according to a report by the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU).
— The biggest problem is that they didn’t have access to the databases. We are now able to better search for fit. It’s not because they wanted to, but they didn’t have the technical capacity to get (this information), because they’re not the police. This led the military to simply rely on the “badge” on the certificate. They basically took into account the documentation provided by the CAC itself — explains the general coordinator of gun control of the PF, Wellington Clay Porcino Silva.
Service and inspection
It is this aptitude check of shooters that the PF intends to complete next year, after the renewal of certificates in July and the migration of data from the Military Weapons Management System (Sigma) and the National Weapons System (Sinarm) CAC carried out in 2025.
— It will be a big challenge for us to understand the real capacity of the federal police to provide assistance and inspection — says federal police officer Roberto Uchôa, advisor to the Brazilian Public Security Forum and author of the book “Armas para Quem?
Throughout 2025, since the management of CACs became the responsibility of the company, the PF arrested 73 certificate holders. They were wanted for various crimes, such as murder, criminal organization, rape of a vulnerable person, fraud and theft.
— We have developed an automation tool that will manage the CAC database with the arrest warrant database every month. It will be a permanent operation — says delegate Wellington Clay, who, before joining the PF, was part of the army.
There is still a liability for 7,600 restricted weapons, including rifles, rifles and pistols, which were not identified during the last PF re-registration, carried out in May 2023. The company plans to pursue these owners to better understand the weapons situation.
— We have a big challenge next year. Our main objective is to effectively control this renewal, even if we have to extend this deadline a little, because it is more important to carry out an effective inspection to guarantee that only people who meet the requirements renew, instead of carrying out an automatic renewal, without supervision — says, in turn, the delegate Fabrício Kerber, director of the PF Administrative Police (DPA).
Statistics indicate that the Lula government managed to prevent the registration of new firearms for the civilian population compared to the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), which carried out a series of relaxations of concession rules. From 2020 to 2022 there were 700,000 new certificates, while from 2023 to 2025 there were 160,000, a drop of 77.1%.
— This is a significant drop, because it shows the result of this gun control policy aimed at reducing violence — says Kerber.
The PF, however, also tried to wink at the CACs, emphasizing that it has accelerated the process of evaluating applications in this category. Over the past six months, approximately 690,000 applications were filed, of which 80% were analyzed and processed, 18% awaiting verification and 2% returned due to inconsistencies in documents.
The delegates also mentioned as a positive figure the fact that 30% of the country’s more than one million CACs do not have their own weapons. This means that this part of the category did not use the certificate to go out armed in the streets, turning more to the sport of shooting.
Experts believe that the renewal of firearm registrations in 2026 will be a key opportunity to identify possible diversion of weapons and ammunition to the illegal market.
— This will be a crucial window for the country. Beyond simply confirming whether the legal requirements remain valid, such as the absence of a criminal record and technical and psychological aptitude, this will be the ideal time to update storage addresses and check if the weapons still remain with the original owners — affirms Bruno Langeani, senior consultant at the Instituto Sou da Paz and author of the book “Arma de firearm no Brasil: trigger da violence”.
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