New gun law with three-year licence renewals proposed after Debsirin shooting

The government is considering amendments to the firearm law to impose tighter controls on guns, covering importation, sale, ownership and transfers of ownership, with Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul proposing that gun ownership licences be renewed every three years instead of remaining permanent.

Deputy Prime Minister Pakorn Nilprapunt said today that the existing Firearms Act B.E. 2490, which has been in force since 1947, is obsolete and needs to be revised to keep pace with changing circumstances and ensure effective control.

Tighter gun control has emerged as a priority for the government in the aftermath of a mass shooting at Debsirin Nonthaburi School on August 7, in which nine teachers and students, including the shooter, lost their lives.

While revising the gun law will take some time, he hinted that a ministerial regulation might be issued in the meantime to tighten controls on gun ownership.

He pointed out that information on gun imports, sales by gun shops, individual gun ownership and ownership transfers is kept separately rather than in a single system, and needs to be unified to streamline gun ownership records.

He also said gun shops should take greater responsibility and be able to ascertain the whereabouts of guns they sell to customers.

The deputy prime minister also pointed to an aspect that has been ignored, namely the lack of controls over ammunition purchases, making it possible for gun owners to possess excessive amounts of ammunition.

He noted that, in some countries, people who want to buy guns are required to have basic knowledge of how to handle firearms safely because guns are lethal weapons and must be properly regulated.

Furthermore, he noted a loophole in gun ownership transfers, saying that in many cases, people who buy guns from other individuals do not report the transfers to authorities, making it difficult for officials to trace the firearms.

Pakorn also said the prime minister had suggested that gun shops immediately update their inventories when a gun is sold and have a mechanism to track the whereabouts of weapons they have sold in real time.