Thailand mass killing

There is a thriving black market for illegal firearms. Read more at straitstimes.com.

In 2019, there were 31,419 gun-related crimes, according to the Royal Thai Police. Police General Damrongsak said Panya - who killed himself after shooting his wife and child too - did not have a drug abuse record when he applied to the force. Thursday's mass shooting that left 37 people dead, including the shooter, is the most fatal in recent Thai history. These were targeted to be sold online, where such items are reportedly cheaper and buyers need not go through extensive background checks. They also have to undergo background checks, and former convicts, drug abusers, disabled persons, mentally unsound individuals and minors are ruled out. [The mass killing of 22 children in a childcare centre](https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/ex-cop-kills-at-least-38-including-22-children-in-thailand-daycare-mass-shooting) in north-eastern Thailand by a former police officer armed with a knife and a gun has turned attention to the issues of gun violence and gun ownership laws.

Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra urged the government to "speed up the suppression of drugs, especially methamphetamine tablets.”

[killing spree in Thailand](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/10/07/asia-pacific/thailand-massacre-children/) that left two dozen preschoolers dead, calls are mounting for a national crackdown on the cartels that traffic billions of dollars of illicit substances a year. Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra urged the government to “speed up the suppression of drugs, especially methamphetamine tablets.” The former prime minister, who is in self-imposed exile, led a yearslong anti-drugs war in the early 2000s in which about 2,500 people were killed.

Rampage that began at a child-care center in the country's northeast and left 36 people dead has shattered a rural community.

He would call her “Yai Aoy, Yai Aoy,” meaning Granny Aoy, and loved to play with her phone, she said. She worries about the health of her pregnant daughter, the boy’s mother. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan -ocha announced compensation for the victims’ families and expressed his sorrow at the killings. The killer had been fired from the police force this year for possession of methamphetamine. Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn had earlier declared the victims and their families would receive royal patronage, meaning the monarch will pay for funeral expenses and ceremonies. Grieving families gathered at temples in the district, around 330 miles from the capital Bangkok, on Friday to formally identify their dead.