<![CDATA[Thailand]]>

Blaming Lawful Gun Owners for Illegal Acts Is Universal

November 13, 2023 by Tom Knighton Leave a Comment

I think that if you were to poll actual gun owners, you’d find a lot of them are kind of sick of being blamed for the actions of criminals.

That’s pretty par for the course here in the US, after all. When the homicide rate increases, anti-gunners often start pushing gun control, saying that we absolutely need to ban these particular weapons or this particular practice and that if we don’t, we’ll see more homicides.

Yet when you look at the crimes in question, we often find most are driven by people who are already possessing a firearm illegally.

Which brings me to Thailand.

We’ve seen some mass shootings there over the last couple of years, some of which were particularly bad. There have also been some other shootings, mostly where innocent people have been caught in the crossfire.

Despite the government’s efforts to take strict measures to control gun violence following the shooting of a 17-year-old at Paragon in October, there have been at least two other incidents in Bangkok recently.
The first incident occurred on Saturday, November 11, when a group of teenagers were involved in a shootout in which Maria Sirada Sinprasert, also known as “Teacher Jeab” who teaches computer skills at Sacred Heart Convent School, was accidentally shot. She was shot in front of TMB Thanachart Bank, Khlong Toey Branch, Sunthorn Kesa Road. She later died in hospital.
On Monday morning, November 13, there was another incident when two groups of teenagers exchanged gunfire and explosives. A 15-year-old 5th grade student was killed in the crossfire near the entrance to Soi Phatthanakan 53, which runs parallel to the Bangkok-Chonburi motorway in Suan Luang district.

These are awful, tragic situations.

But before we get further into what happened, let’s understand that these are both shootings that resulted from a shootout between groups of teenagers.

In Thailand, the minimum age to own any firearm is 20.

Carrying a gun in public requires a concealed carry permit. Thailand isn’t Texas, after all, especially considering the rest of the gun laws on the books.

Despite that, both of these shootings happened. Clearly, people were breaking the laws on the books to even get those guns, so it’s not a reach to assume that they also didn’t have permits to carry a firearm lawfully.

That’s not stopping officials there from wanting to punish lawful gun owners.

Anutin Charnvirakul, the Interior Minister, spoke out in favour of banning all Thai citizens from carrying weapons.
“We cannot allow people to carry guns because if students and teachers are shot like this, can society bear it? It’s not just about vocational students, it’s about everyone,” said Anutin.
Anutin also addressed the problem that there are more than 10 million legally owned firearms in Thailand. He explained that instead of allowing individuals to carry guns for self-defence, it is crucial to strengthen trust in the law and the state to ensure public safety. He emphasised the need for a stricter legal framework.

Except, of course, that the laws clearly didn’t stop these groups of teens from carrying guns. Yet despite that fact, Anutin wants to deprive lawful gun owners of their ability to carry a firearm, even if they have a permit.

I guess it’s good to know that this particular flavor of stupid is universal.

The criminals in Thailand aren’t going to do anything any differently. They’ll keep obtaining guns illegally, carrying them illegally, and using them illegally. Absolutely nothing is going to change because they took away lawful gun owners’ ability to carry a firearm in public.

Nothing at all.

But we also need to remember that this insanity doesn’t stay overseas. If the rates of illegal gun use drop, even due to literally any other reason, what is happening in Thailand will be pushed here in the United States.

That means we probably need to figure out a way to network gun rights groups all over the world as well as offer guidance to those who live in nations without such a group on how to start one. We need to make gun rights a universal push, even in nations without the Second Amendment.

The stupid won’t stay in foreign lands, so neither should the right to keep and bear arms.

Thailand’s gun control debate raging a year after nursery shooting

October 10, 2023 by Tom Knighton Leave a Comment

Thailand shouldn’t be occupying so much of my gun politics news feed, but here we are. In the immediate aftermath of the attempted mass shooting there, we shouldn’t be surprised.

Then we have the fact that it was just over a year ago when the country suffered a horrific mass shooting at a nursery that left 34 people dead.

In that time, there were no new gun control laws passed, which many think probably played a factor in what happened earlier this month.

And for many, that’s a problem.

One year ago Friday, a police officer who was recently fired for drug abuse stormed a nursery in northeast Thailand and proceeded to shoot and stab 36 people to death, including 24 children, before fatally shooting himself.
[killer’s name redacted]’s killing spree made for Thailand’s worst mass killing by a lone gunman on record. It set off a wave of calls for tougher firearms laws in a country with the highest rate of gun ownership in the region. Then-Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha convened a special meeting of top officials to brainstorm ideas and promised action.
A year later, however, none of the laws and regulations governing who can buy, sell or own a gun in Thailand has changed.
“At this moment, [there has been] no … change in the laws and regulations,” Chavanut Janekarn, a criminologist at Thailand’s Thammasat University and retired 25-year veteran of the police force, told VOA.

Now, they say this like it’s a bad thing. It’s not.

See, the killer here had been a police officer but was being charged with drug trafficking. I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say that if he can traffic drugs, he could get firearms regardless of the laws on the books.

Last week’s shooting didn’t even involve something made to shoot bullets. It was a blank firing replica that had been converted to shoot live rounds.

At every point, Thailand’s gun control laws have been thwarted not by their lack but because someone determined to do something bad will always find a way.

Officials claim Thailand’s gun laws make it “too easy” to get a gun, but they require a license that is meant to limit gun ownership to those whom the nation approves of. Since it requires a background check to make sure you’re not a repeat criminal and a psychological evaluation, I don’t see what else Thailand could really do without instituting bans or something of that sort.

And why should you do that when it’s clear that’s not actually where the problem lies?

Like politicians here, officials in Thailand are looking to Do Something so they appear to be taking the issue seriously, but without having to do the work of actually doing something.

I suppose anti-gun politicians are the same no matter what country you find yourself in.

Look, what happened last year was beyond awful and what happened last week is only better because the scale was much smaller.

But restricting guns isn’t the answer. Thailand was right not to issue further restrictions after the nursery attack. What they failed to do is look into why someone did something like that in the first place.

Thailand set to make more gun control laws to fail

October 5, 2023 by Tom Knighton Leave a Comment

Following the deadly attack at a mall in Thailand, an attempted mass shooting, it’s unsurprising that officials there want to at least be seen doing something.

After all, it’s the third such shooting since 2020–so much for that “uniquely American problem” thing, huh?–and officials have to Do Something.

Of course, they’ve done something after each shooting and, well, it clearly didn’t accomplish all that much.

This time isn’t shaping up to be any different, either.

The government is suspending the issuance of permits for importing and trading firearms, real and imitation, as one of seven short-term measures to improve gun control, Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakulannounced on Thursday.
The measures are a response to public concern following the shooting on Tuesday at a Bangkok shopping mall, where a teenager armed with a blank gun that had been modified killed two people and wounded five others.
The short-term measures were agreed on during a meeting that involved agencies including the Royal Thai Police, Customs Department, Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DES) and Ministry of Public Health at Government House on Thursday.
Mr Anutin, who is also a deputy prime minister, said earlier that all existing gun control laws would be reviewed and amended as necessary to ensure public safety. Only authorised individuals should be to carry guns in public, he added.

So, in order to facilitate this, they’re going to basically make it impossible for anyone to lawfully buy a firearm or even a replica of one.

Let’s remember that the shooter here was a 14-year-old kid who still found a way to obtain a firearm. It’s unknown if he modified the blank-firing replica himself or got it from someone else, but if he did get it from another person, do we really think the next would-be killer wouldn’t be able to do the same thing?

I hate to break it to the nation of Thailand, but this is also the era of the 3D printer. Gun control, as a concept, is completely and totally dead. So long as people can print things, they can print guns. You simply cannot stop those who want a gun from getting one.

What Thailand is doing, though, is making it impossible for those who want to follow the law to get one, even something that just looks like a gun.

Yet Thailand isn’t alone in this.

Over and over again, this is the automatic reaction of lawmakers and public officials. They cannot stand the idea that people might be able to have a gun if anyone anywhere might possibly do something with one. It doesn’t matter how the bad guy gets a gun. It doesn’t matter if criminals or dangerous people will still have firearms.

All that matters is being seen as Doing Something.

Thailand is no different than anywhere else except for the United States. Our leadership will often talk the same game, mind you, but the Second Amendment tends to keep them from pushing things too far and is now leading to a lot of past stuff being overturned.

And thank God for that.

Thailand shooting leads to calls for action on guns

October 4, 2023 by Tom Knighton Leave a Comment

High-profile shootings are typically considered an American phenomenon. The exception, of course, is political assassination, such as what we saw in Japan last year. Those can happen anywhere and we accept that easily enough.

But a shooting in Thailand isn’t an assassination that made headlines. The incident itself is what I’d call an attempted mass shooting. After all, only two people were killed, but as five others were injured, it was clear that this wasn’t some targeted attack. The Gun Violence Archive would call it a mass shooting, though, but I won’t.

Still, it has all the hallmarks of the kind of thing we’re often told is “uniquely American.”

The prime minister of Thailand’s approach, however, also looks awfully similar to what we see here.

Thailand’s prime minister on Wednesday vowed “preventive measures” after a shooting at a Bangkok shopping mall left two people dead and raised fresh questions about the kingdom’s gun control.
Shoppers returned in dribs and drabs as the Siam Paragon mall reopened less than 24 hours after the shooting — Thailand’s third high-profile deadly gun attack in four years.
The shooting at one of Bangkok’s biggest, most upmarket malls will come as a fresh blow to Thailand’s efforts to rebuild its vital tourism industry after the pandemic.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin joined a minute’s silence at the mall before offering the government’s condolences to the families of the two female victims — one Chinese and one from Myanmar.
“I am confident Siam Paragon and government officials did their best to minimise the casualties and damage,” he said.
“Let this be the only time this happens. My government insists we will give priority to preventive measures,” he added, without giving details.

Now, let’s understand that Thailand has pretty strict gun control laws. Those didn’t stop the shooting at a Thai daycare center last year, for example, and it didn’t stop this one.

Granted, that shooting was carried out by a former police officer. A previous one was carried out by a soldier in 2020. Both of those had legal access to firearms at some point or another.

This one, however, was perpetrated by someone who had no such access. Instead, he found a way around them.

Samran Nuanma, Assistant National Police Chief, told a news conference on Wednesday that the weapon used in the attack was a blank-firing pistol.
“But the barrel was modified for live shooting,” Samran said.
“We will increase regulations and laws to control the use of firearms.”
But past promises of tightening gun laws have not prevented tragedies.

I’m curious just how much curtailment is even possible at this point.

This wasn’t a gun built to be fired. It was meant to shoot blanks. It was modified to fire live rounds and then used by a kid to try and commit a mass shooting.

I’m not sure Thailand can prevent future tragedies by restricting guns even more than they already do.

While mass shootings and attempted mass shootings are rarer in Thailand than they are here in the US, even if you use a real definition versus the GVA’s, they also typically are more deadly. This one could have been more deadly than it was, only good fortune prevented it from being so.

And this was with a modified blank-firing gun.

It seems clear that guns aren’t the problem. The issue is the people who want to slaughter the innocent.