At a shooting range on the outskirts of Bangkok, the sharp crack of a handgun breaks through the quiet afternoon.
Krisakorn Boonwan stands beneath a rusting awning, firing at a paper target about 10 metres away. Wearing flip-flops and no ear protection, the 41-year-old mechanic sends round after round toward the target as spent shells scatter around his feet. The only interruptions are the creaking of an old fan and the rhythmic punch of the pistol.
For Krisakorn, shooting is a sport and a form of personal discipline. He says the activity improves his concentration, composure, emotional control and physical readiness. He has even introduced his 10-year-old daughter to shooting.
Yet Thailand’s latest wave of gun violence has forced him to reconsider how openly he presents his hobby.
“I enjoy it because it helps my focus, composure, emotional control and physical readiness,” he said.
Krisakorn accepts that gun enthusiasts may now be viewed differently by a public still shaken by two deadly shootings in Nonthaburi province, just north of Bangkok, earlier this month. He keeps his shooting activities off social media to avoid being associated with the violence.
On Aug. 7, a 14-year-old student used a 9mm handgun to kill his grandparents, five school staff members and another student at Debsirin Nonthaburi School before taking his own life.
Three days later, a former politician allegedly shot and killed a local official following what was reported to be a financial dispute.
The killings have once again placed Thailand’s firearms problem at the centre of national debate, reviving questions about how guns are acquired, stored, monitored and ultimately kept away from people who may use them to commit violence.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has responded by promising sweeping changes to Thailand’s firearms system.
“I can’t please everyone, but we must ensure safety, especially for innocent victims and children,” Anutin told reporters last week.
The government’s initial measures include suspending new firearm purchase permits, increasing weapons checkpoints and inspections, tightening restrictions on carrying guns, reviewing existing weapons and licences and considering a firearm amnesty.
Officials have also signalled broader legal reform, including stronger accountability for registered gun owners whose weapons are later used in crimes.
But experts warn that Thailand has heard similar promises before.
The country has repeatedly responded to mass shootings with temporary restrictions and enforcement campaigns, only for attention to fade and deeper structural problems to remain.
“Authorities issue measures immediately after high-profile incidents, but structural reform stalls once public attention fades,” said Trynh Phoraksa, a criminologist and lecturer at Mahidol University.
Thailand’s recent history is marked by a succession of high-profile shootings that have prompted calls for tighter controls.
In October 2023, a 14-year-old armed with a modified blank-firing pistol killed two people at Bangkok’s Siam Paragon shopping centre. The incident exposed a major loophole involving replica and blank-firing weapons, which could be obtained more easily than conventional firearms and, in some cases, modified to fire live ammunition.
The government temporarily halted the issuance of new gun licences to the general public and targeted the loophole surrounding such weapons. Police also launched a nationwide “Gun Clearance Operation” targeting illegal, modified and blank guns and online sellers.
A year earlier, Thailand suffered its deadliest mass killing by a single perpetrator in recent history.
In October 2022, a former police officer killed 37 people, including 24 children, during a gun-and-knife rampage centred on a childcare centre in Nong Bua Lamphu province in northeastern Thailand.
Then-Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha ordered tighter gun-ownership controls and a review of existing licence holders and applicants. The Interior Ministry instructed officials to determine whether gun owners continued to meet the requirements under which their weapons had been licensed.
And in 2020, a soldier killed 29 people in a rampage in Nakhon Ratchasima province. The tragedy prompted the army to scrap its welfare gun programme, under which personnel had been able to purchase firearms at discounted prices. Authorities subsequently tightened approval procedures for soldiers seeking to purchase personal weapons.
Despite those repeated responses, criminologists say Thailand’s underlying firearms problem has not been resolved.
“Thailand’s firearm legislation is outdated and requires a complete overhaul,” said independent criminologist Krisanaphong Poothakool.
“Accessibility remains remarkably easy, particularly through black markets and modified replica weapons,” he said, adding that legal penalties also remain inadequate and require “decisive, swift and guaranteed enforcement”.
Thailand’s firearms law dates back decades, and illegal possession of a firearm can carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years. But the maximum fine under the existing law is only 20,000 baht, or roughly US$600.
The government is now considering tougher penalties.
The scale of the country’s civilian firearms stock makes the problem especially difficult.
A 2017 estimate by the Small Arms Survey, an independent global research project based in Switzerland, put the number of firearms in civilian hands in Thailand at approximately 10.3 million.
Of those, an estimated 6.2 million were legally owned while about 4.1 million were illegal.
The figures are unofficial and remain the most widely cited estimate available, while experts caution that the actual number could be significantly higher.
Even so, the estimate places Thailand far ahead of other Southeast Asian countries in civilian gun ownership.
Per capita, Thailand’s estimated civilian firearms stock was more than four times that of the Philippines and about 20 times that of Malaysia, according to the 2017 survey.
The sheer number of weapons creates a major enforcement challenge.
“Beyond the inability to register or track firearm locations, there is an overly accessible path to acquiring guns, loopholes between legal and illegal firearms and a severe lack of post-licensing oversight,” Trynh said.
Thailand’s porous international borders have contributed to weapons smuggling, while locally manufactured and modified firearms have also entered the illicit market.
But experts say the country’s gun problem cannot be explained by trafficking alone.
There are social and institutional factors that encourage gun ownership, including concerns about personal security and a lack of confidence in emergency responses to crime.
Past welfare programmes for members of the military, police and other government agencies also made firearms more accessible to officials and created concerns about weapons being resold or entering illegal channels.
Gun ownership can also carry a social meaning.
“Ownership is frequently perceived as a status of power,” Krisanaphong said.
For Paween Arunno, 54, however, owning a firearm is simply about protecting his family.
He has kept a gun at home for about a decade and says it is intended for self-defence. He stores it discreetly and argues that responsible legal gun ownership should not automatically be associated with rare mass shootings.
“I completely disagree with the government’s proposal to periodically inspect gun owners and require regular licence renewals,” he said. “Obtaining each firearm is already no easy task.”
But Paween said he would support tougher screening and regulation before someone is permitted to purchase a firearm.
The distinction between legal ownership and household access is increasingly important following the Debsirin Nonthaburi shooting.
Authorities have said the weapon allegedly used by the teenage gunman was registered to his grandfather.
Trynh said the case highlighted a wider failure to control access to weapons inside households.
“Gun owners frequently fail to restrict access, despite safe storage being a fundamental necessity before purchasing a firearm,” he said.
He has called for mandatory locked safes or other secure storage arrangements, with ammunition kept separately from firearms.
Anutin’s government is considering making registered owners legally accountable when their firearms fall into another person’s hands and are subsequently used in a crime. Owners would also be required to keep weapons away from children and immediately report missing firearms.
But while the government tightens rules on legal weapons, illegal firearms remain readily accessible.
Checks of online platforms found firearms openly advertised through services such as Line and X.
In one case, an anonymous enquiry to an online account apparently offering an unregistered firearm was met with an offer of a weapon, magazine and ammunition for 5,500 baht. The seller claimed delivery could be made within one or two days.
The seller described the weapon as ready for use and said it had been sourced from a pawn shop, meaning it could not be legally registered.
The account also claimed registered firearms could be obtained separately, generally for between 10,000 baht and 20,000 baht.
The ease of such transactions illustrates the gap between Thailand’s formal licensing system and its illicit firearms market.
On paper, legal gun ownership is tightly controlled.
Before the current suspension of new purchase permits, Thai citizens aged 20 or older could apply for permission to purchase and own a firearm. Thailand’s constitution does not establish a right to bear arms, and applicants must provide a legitimate reason for ownership and undergo criminal and eligibility checks.
Applicants must obtain a purchase permit before acquiring a firearm. Once purchased, the weapon must be inspected and registered separately to its owner.
The formal process can take around two months.
The illicit market operates on an entirely different timetable.
An unregistered weapon can potentially reach a buyer within days.
And buyers do not necessarily need to visit one of Bangkok’s traditional firearm shops, including those concentrated around Wang Burapha, an old commercial district in central Bangkok.
Tu, a Bangkok driver who asked to be identified only by his nickname, said he is waiting for a gun arranged through a police officer friend.
He expects to receive it within another month or two.
Thailand has historically allowed police and other officials to acquire subsidised firearms through government welfare schemes. Such programmes have repeatedly been suspended or restricted amid concerns that weapons could be resold or diverted into the illicit market.
Following the latest shootings, the government has again ordered such schemes suspended.
Tu nevertheless hopes to receive his firearm.
He says he wants it to protect his family and property in southern Bangkok.
“In my area, it doesn’t feel that safe. I need it to protect my assets. Protect my family. It’s better to have it than not have it,” he said.
For some gun owners and trainers, the answer to Thailand’s firearms problem is not necessarily fewer guns, but more responsible ownership.
Top, a tactical firearms trainer and protective-equipment supplier in Bangkok, argues that ordinary citizens should be allowed to possess firearms for protection as long as they are properly trained.
He said there are “wolves” who prey on innocent people and warned that responsible gun owners could increasingly become viewed as part of the problem following the latest shootings.
“Just saying no guns, I don’t think that solves anything,” he said.
“And in a country where there’s 10 million guns, how do you even go about solving that problem?”
His concern reflects a wider debate over whether Thailand can realistically reduce the number of firearms already in circulation or whether it must focus on preventing dangerous people from obtaining and using them.
Krisanaphong estimates Thailand has about 15 civilian firearms for every 100 people, a ratio he describes as concerning.
The priority, he said, should be keeping guns away from high-risk individuals.
But experts also caution that gun control alone cannot explain or prevent all violence.
The country’s problems extend into schools, where researchers say bullying, abuse and unchecked aggression can create an environment in which violence becomes normalised.
Research by Peson Chobphon, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University, found that abuse can become normalised in large urban schools. Violence can occur not only between students but also between school staff and students.
That environment can send young people the message that aggressive behaviour is acceptable.
Media coverage can compound the problem.
Thai television news programmes frequently replay raw footage of school fights, street violence, road rage, robberies and killings.
“I think it desensitises cruelty and it also sparks dangerous copycat behaviour for some students who might want to express their anger,” Peson said.
The concern became particularly immediate after the Debsirin shooting.
On Aug. 14, classes were suspended at a school in Loei province after a student allegedly told a friend that he planned to carry out a shooting inspired by the Aug. 7 attack.
Peson said schools are often poorly equipped to intervene before conflicts become serious.
Teachers may lack the tools to address bullying and disputes, while traditional hierarchies can make it difficult for students to seek help or for younger teachers to challenge established practices.
As a result, schools can become reluctant to intervene in complicated behavioural problems such as bullying, social exclusion and escalating conflict.
“Teachers are so terrified of being exposed online or facing public backlash on social media. They become highly risk averse,” he said.
The problem is also connected to how power is distributed within Thai schools.
Laponpat Wangpaisit, a former leader of the Bad Student movement that challenged Thailand’s rigid school hierarchy in 2020, said many students still lack safe spaces to discuss bullying, harassment or unfair treatment.
The movement campaigned against physical punishment, harassment and rules that activists argued gave teachers excessive authority while leaving students with little voice.
Six years later, Laponpat said the underlying concerns remain.
“That does not mean that an imbalance of power directly causes violence,” he said. “But when a system leaves people feeling that they cannot speak, negotiate, or be heard, frustration can build up.”
He said the issue should not be viewed solely as a school problem.
“This is not only a school issue. It is connected to the wider culture around power, violence, access to weapons, and the way we teach young people to deal with anger, conflict and rejection.”
For Laponpat, stronger gun controls are necessary, but they must be accompanied by mechanisms that allow young people to seek help before conflicts escalate.
He warned against reducing shootings to the actions of an isolated individual.
“I think it is necessary to talk about the perpetrator and gun control,” he said. “But if the discussion stops there, we risk turning the incident into a story about ‘one disturbed individual’, which allows the institutions and society around that person to avoid asking difficult questions about themselves.”
Few understand the long-term consequences of Thailand’s gun violence better than those who have survived it.
Satita Boonsom was working at a childcare centre in Nong Bua Lamphu when Thailand suffered its worst mass killing by a single perpetrator in recent history in October 2022.
A former police officer entered the Uthai Sawan Child Development Centre and killed staff members and young children who were sleeping in the nursery.
Satita survived.
Years later, the sound of a loud noise can still transport her back to the attack.
“Sometimes I suddenly think about the children and the people I used to see every day, and it still feels as if it happened not long ago,” she said.
When she heard about the latest shooting involving children, she immediately thought about the survivors and families who would now carry the consequences of another act of violence.
For Satita, the latest tragedy raised a painful question: after so many previous shootings and government promises, are children actually safer?
“At the time, I really hoped that after such a devastating loss of life it would be the last time something like this happened,” she said.
She had hoped the massacre would force Thailand to take gun violence and access to firearms more seriously.
Instead, another school shooting has reopened the same debate.
“I don’t want every tragedy to end with people saying, ‘We won’t let this happen again,’ only for us to find ourselves saying exactly the same thing again after another incident.”
That may ultimately be the central challenge facing Anutin’s government.
Thailand can suspend licences, establish checkpoints, inspect weapons, increase penalties and launch enforcement campaigns. It can close loopholes involving replica firearms and punish illegal sellers.
But if millions of firearms remain scattered across households and illicit markets, if legal weapons are poorly secured, if illegal firearms remain readily available online and across porous borders, and if schools and communities struggle to identify violence before it escalates, legislation alone may not be enough.
The country’s repeated cycles of shooting, outrage and reform have shown that the problem is larger than any single weapon or perpetrator.
For criminologists, the immediate priority is restricting access to firearms among high-risk individuals and improving oversight after weapons are legally acquired.
For gun owners, responsible ownership and self-defence remain legitimate concerns in a country where many people feel unsafe.
For educators and youth activists, the debate must also confront bullying, institutional power, normalised violence and the ways young people learn to handle anger and rejection.
And for survivors such as Satita, the measure of any reform is ultimately simple: whether another family has to experience the same devastation.
Thailand’s latest gun-control push may therefore become another temporary response to a national tragedy—or the beginning of a more fundamental overhaul of how the country regulates firearms and confronts violence.
