October 6, 2023
BANGKOK – The deputy premier on Thursday presided over a meeting to review the laws governing gun ownership in Thailand, following the deadly shooting in Bangkok on Tuesday that took the lives of two foreigners and left five others injured.
Several senior officials, including the director-general of the Department of Provincial Administration Attasit Samphanrat, attended the meeting.
Anutin, who is also the Interior Minister, said that he had decided to entrust Attasit with looking into the rules on the use of firearms and other weapons and reporting back to him to determine which ones needed to be revised.
He said he would not allow ordinary people to get a permit to own a firearm, not even imitation ones like BB guns or blank guns, as they were dangerous and needed to be regulated,
“Only officials would be permitted [to possess firearms],” he said.
The 14-year-old shooter reportedly used a modified blank pistol. Police investigation revealed that the teen also owned other types of weapons, like an M-16 gun and ammo.
Anutin noted that anyone under the age of 18 should not be allowed to participate in shooting activities.
Anyone using a gun at a shooting camp would have to leave the gun there. No one would be allowed to carry weapons outside the camp, he said.
According to a 2017 report by the Swiss Small Arms Survey, Thailand has the most number of weapons in Asean, numbering over 10.3 million. Four million of them are illegal.