Symbolic imageThailand has halted new firearms licences after the school attack that killed nine, with Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul promising tighter controls. How far the government will actually go remains unclear in a country with a run of high-profile shootings.
Thailand's firearms rules are a long-running point of contention, with mass shootings periodically reviving calls for tighter controls against those who defend the current regime. The New York Times reports that the latest case at a school outside Bangkok has reopened that argument.
Thailand's government has suspended the issuing of new firearms licences and promised tighter gun controls after an attack at a school that killed nine people. The New York Times reports that it remains unclear how far the government will go in a country that has seen a string of high-profile shootings in recent years.
Thailand has suspended firearms licences after a teenage gunman attacked a school in Nonthaburi, leaving nine people dead, the Guardian reported on Wednesday. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul called for tighter gun controls and 'decisive penalties'; the gunman and the grandparents he killed have been cremated.
A gunman shot the chairman of a provincial administrative organisation and his driver in Nonthaburi, near Bangkok, and one person died, according to reports on Monday and Tuesday. Police accuse a former member of parliament of the attack, which came days after a 14-year-old went on a killing spree.
Police said on Sunday that the 14-year-old who killed eight people in Thailand had an air gun confiscated by a teacher at school last year and had watched violent content online. According to Le Monde, he shot his grandparents with his grandfather's pistol at their home north of Bangkok on Friday before opening fire at his school, where six of the victims died, and the case has revived debate about the nearly 10 million firearms in circulation in the country.
A 12-year-old girl wounded in Friday's school shooting near Bangkok died on Saturday, raising the death toll to nine including the attacker and his grandparents.
A 14-year-old student shot dead his grandparents and then opened fire at his high school outside Bangkok on Friday before killing himself, Thai authorities said. Reported death tolls range from five, according to local police cited by TASS, to eight, according to Daily Sabah, with 23 people injured; the New York Times reports the attack has revived debate about Thailand's gun laws.