Mass Shooting ... In Thailand

The New York Post is reporting that a teen in Thailand killed his grandparents and then went to the Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Bangkok where he killed 6 more people, plus himself.  Fifteen people were injured. It appears that the teen used a semi-auto pistol, which is strange because in Thailand you have to be at least 20 years old to obtain a permit to possess a firearm; and you have to undergo a thorough background check in order to get a permit. It is also illegal to carry in public without a permit with heightened penalties for carrying at certain locations such as schools. 

    The Post goes on to relate: 

    It is the second school shooting in Thailand this year after a teacher died and a student was injured in the south of the country in February.

[snip]

    Gun ownership and gun violence are not uncommon in Thailand, which has seen a series of deadly shootings in the past six years, with children among the victims.

    Thailand’s worst mass killing by a single perpetrator in its recent history took place in 2022, when a former policeman ran amok in a three-hour gun-and-knife attack in the northeast that killed 36 people including 22 children stabbed as they slept at a daycare center.

    A gunman killed five people including security guards and a vendor at a Bangkok market in July 2025 before turning the gun on himself, while a teacher died in the southern city of Hat Yai in February this year when a shooter opened fire at a school where she worked.

    In 2020, a soldier killed 29 people in a shooting rampage in Nakhon Ratchasima. 

    And in 2023, a 14-year-old used a modified handgun to kill two people and wound five others at a luxury Bangkok shopping center.

    After the 2023 shooting, Anutin, who was then serving as interior minister, ordered a raft of gun control measures, including a short-term ban on new licenses, import restrictions, and banning of people under 20 years from shooting ranges.

    Longer-term measures also included a medical certificate assessing the mental health and psychological condition of gun owners as well as a specified validity period for some gun licenses.

And, of course, the knee-jerk response from politicians is to impose even more gun laws.  The thing here is that gun laws will not stop someone intent on killing others--they will obtain firearms through other means (avoiding the permitting process) or select a different means of killing (which is why we see more knife/machete attacks and vehicular attacks in Europe). Rather, all the laws do is disarm the victims.