Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the region, with 10 million firearms in circulation. (Photo: AFP/VNA) Bangkok (VNA) - Thailand has stopped issuing new gun licences for a year, the country’s interior ministry announced on December 20.
Interior ministry spokeswoman Traisuree Taisaranakul said that the change takes effect immediately, and follows debate in the kingdom about firearms control following deadly gun incidents.
A 14-year-old boy opened fire in a Bangkok shopping mall in October, killing three people, and an ex-policeman armed with a legally owned handgun and knife murdered 24 children and 12 adults at a nursery a year earlier.
According to the GunPolicy.org website, Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Southeast Asia with 10 million firearms in circulation, roughly one for every seven Thais.
The kingdom recorded almost 1,300 gun deaths in 2019, the latest year for which data is available./.
