BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Tuesday suspended the issuance of permits to buy firearms and said existing licences would be reviewed, days after a 14-year-old gunman killed nine people.
• Anutin directed a deputy prime minister overseeing legal affairs to expedite a new gun control law, with stronger controls and significantly harsher penalties.
• Police were ordered to stop renewing permits that enable people to buy firearms.
• Registered firearms must be kept at home and cannot be carried in public, Anutin said, reiterating the current law.
• For illegal firearms, studies are underway to enact legislation requiring their return to the state within a specified period, he said.
• Last week, a teenage student killed six people and himself at a school outside Bangkok after fatally shooting his grandparents in the Southeast Asian nation’s worst mass killing in nearly four years.
• Thailand had an estimated 10.3 million firearms in civilian possession, equating to around 15 guns per 100 residents, the highest rate in the region by a wide margin, according to a 2017 estimate by the Small Arms Survey.
• The education minister proposed new school safety measures to cabinet, including screening everyone who enters education premises for illegal objects and weapons.
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