Argentina’s Milei Wins Big, Strengthens Push for Gun Rights

President Javier Milei of Argentina, from Wikipedia

President Javier Milei has won a landslide victory in the election of October 26, 2025. This election is a midterm election in Argentina. There are 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 72 seats in the Senate. Half of the Chamber of Deputies seats were up for election, and one third of the Senate. President Milei’s party scored 41.5% of the vote, increasing its share of seats in the House of Deputies from 37 to 101. Milei’s party increased its number of Senators from 6 to 20. This is a significant increase in power for President Milei. It is likely he will pursue his policy goals with continued vigor. President Milei admires the United States Constitution and the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights.  From AmmoLand, 2022:

Newly elected President Javier Milei of Argentina is an admirer of the right to keep and bear arms, similar to the Second Amendment enshrined in the Constitution of the United States of America.  Argentina has a vibrant gun culture nurtured by strong rural farming and cattle ranching roots.

In 2024, President Miley reduced the minimum age for legal firearms ownership from 21 to 18. From thefinancialanalyst.net:

In a bold move that has ignited fervent debate across Argentina, President Javier Milei has lowered the legal age for gun ownership from 21 to 18. This decision arrives amid rising crime rates and a palpable sense of insecurity within urban centers, particularly Buenos Aires, where citizens feel increasingly vulnerable to violence. Supporters of Milei’s initiative argue that greater access to firearms is essential for self-defense, especially in a country grappling with high poverty levels and a deteriorating judicial system.

Argentina has suffered under extreme restrictions on firearm ownership for the last 30 years.  In 1995, semi-automatic firearms of greater than .22 rimfire were banned for nearly everyone but the military. On June 18, 2025, President Milei signed a presidential decree allowing ordinary citizens to possess such firearms using the exisiting permit process. From batimes.com.ar:

 It allows so-called “legitimate users of conditional civilian weapons” to “acquire and possess semi-automatic weapons with detachable magazines, similar to assault rifles, carbines or submachine guns derived from military-use firearms, in calibres above .22.”

President Milei has instituted reforms in the permiting process. In May of 2025, the process was streamlined. It is now entirely online. From resumenlatinoamericano.org, translated online from Spanish:

 It created a digital procedure under that name with the aim of reducing the time it takes for private individuals to acquire firearms. 

The government of Javier Milei moved forward on Tuesday with facilitating the purchase and possession of weapons through the creation of a digital express procedure, with the goal of reducing the time it takes for users to acquire firearms.

This was done by the National Agency for Controlled Materials (ANMaC), which approved, through Resolution 45/2025, the creation of the digital procedure called “Express Possession,” designed to facilitate obtaining permits for the possession of firearms with a Unique Material Identification Code (CUIM), acquired through commercial dealers (gun shops) by individual (private) users and personnel from the Armed Forces, Security Forces, police, and the Penitentiary Service.

Argentina has relatively few legal firearms. According to the Small Arms Survey, Argentina has 7.36 civilian firearms per 100 people.  Brazil has a similar number of firearms per 100 people, at 8.29. Brazil’s murder rate dropped to 19.83 per 100,000 in 2019 from 30.8 per 100,000 in 2017, during the Bolsonaro administration.  Argentina has a murder rate of 5.5 per 100,000, close to the murder rate of the United States at about 5 per 100,000 people.

Reforming firearms law and allowing people to defend themselves are part of President Milei’s agenda. Milei may be termed a “practical libertarian” aimed at increasing efficiency in Argentina by reducing governmental restrictions, bureaucracy, red tape, and corruption.  Milei and his party do not have the political strength to create an Argentinian Second Amendment at this time.

©2025 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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