Bangkok (VNA)ꦺ – Thailand has suspended the issuance of new firearm carrying permits for one year, starting from February 14, as part of the country’s effort to curb crime.

Traisuree Taisaranakul, Spokeswoman for the Ministry of Interior, was quoted by local media as announcing that Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed the order on February 12. Traisuree said the order was issued because many people in Thailand carry firearms in public places without a sound reason. Some display their firearms in public to intimidate others. Such habits could lead to crime and danger to people’s lives, properties and morale, she said. In Thailand, guns are expensive and — on paper at least — hard to obtain. However, there were 6.2 million registered firearms in the country as of 2023, according to interior ministry figures. Another 4 million unregistered weapons, often sourced from strife-torn countries or smuggled in, were also estimated to be in circulation. Data from the World Population Review in 2022 indicated Thailand was ranked 15th globally in gun deaths with 2,804 people killed, for a rate of 3.9 per 100,000 people. Crimes involving guns are frequent, with some cases attracting national attention and prompting debates about gun control. Anutin also suspended the issuance of gun carrying permits in November 2023, after a female schoolteacher was killed in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival student gangs in Klong Toey district of Bangkok. A month earlier, police seized more than 2,000 illegal guns and arrested 1,593 suspects in a three-day nationwide crackdown following a deadly shooting at the Siam Paragon shopping mall in Bangkok. A 14-year-old boy was arrested at the scene where two people died, and a third succumbed to injuries a week later. After the Paragon shooting, Anutin suspended the issuance of permits for importing and trading firearms, as one of seven short-term measures to tighten gun control. In the longer term, he said, authorities would look at amending the country’s 76-year-old firearms law to close loopholes./.