After Deadly School Shooting, Thailand PM Says He’ll Ban Lawful Gun Carrying

Just hours after a 14-year-old boy shot and killed his grandparents before attacking teachers and classmates at his high school, Thailand’s prime minister is vowing to crack down on legal gun owners by prohibiting their ability to lawfully carry a firearm for self-defense. 

Politicians the world over often rush to “do something” in the wake of a tragedy, and Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul is no different. Three years ago Anutin, who was then the country’s Interior Minister, cracked down on legal gun owners by imposing a freeze on new licenses and prohibiting individuals younger than 20 from going to a shooting range. 

Longer-term measures proposed included a medical certificate assessing the mental health and psychological condition of gun owners as well as a specified validity period for some gun licenses.

Thailand’s current licensing regime still lacks mental health screening for people applying to possess a gun, allows people as young as 20 to hold weapons and does not require periodic reassessments for licence holders, said Piyaporn Tunneekul, an associate professor at Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University.

“We only look at things like: Do you have money? Do you have a necessary reason to protect your property? Do you want it for self-defence? But in other countries, authorities say those are not good reasons,” she told Reuters.

And those countries aren’t immune to violent crime either. 

According to Reuters, about 40 percent of the estimated 10-million firearms in Thailand are illegally possessed. If Anutin wants to “do something” in response to today’s shooting, why doesn’t he start there instead of targeting lawful gun owners and their ability to carry a firearm in self-defense?

It’s grotesque to use a tragedy like this to make it harder for people to protect themselves, but that’s all that Anutin’s proposal would do. The 14-year-old who carried out the attack wasn’t old enough to legally own or carry a gun. It’s believed that he stole a gun from his grandparents, used it to murder them, and then went to his high school where he carried out his rampage before taking his own life. 

There are a number of steps that Thailand could take to beef up security at its schools, including allowing staff to be armed so they can serve as a first line of defense in case of future attacks. Thailand doesn’t really deploy school resource officers on campus, though some schools might have private security. Behavioral threat analysis could also help identify those students at risk of violent or suicidal ideation. 

Maybe some Thai lawmakers will actually adopt that approach, but it’s shameful to see the nation’s prime minister immediately turn his attention to legal gun owners. 

Anutin’s call for a “new law [that] will only allow government officials on duty to carry guns” also ignores the fact that licenses to carry are already tightly restricted. In fact, since February of this year the Thai government has suspended the issuance of new carry licenses; a move that was once again a misguided response to the actions of violent criminals. 

The Royal Gazette website published an order from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Interior Ministry on February 19, 2026.

The order, signed by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, bans authorities from issuing firearm carry licences (Por. 12) for the time being.

The order says the move is necessary because firearms have been carried in public and used to commit violent acts, causing harm to lives, bodies and property and creating fear among the public.

It aims to protect public safety, reduce crime, maintain social order and help restore normal conditions.

It’s worth noting that despite having the largest number of gun owners in southeast Asia, Thailand has no equivalent to groups like NRA, GOA, SAF, or FPC who are engaged in the political arena. With a prime minister hellbent on making it impossible for people to protect themselves in public (and potentially at home as well), I’d say it’s time for Thai gun owners to get organized . Gun ownership isn’t seen as a right in Thai law, and if the gun-owning public doesn’t start pushing back against Anunin’s nonsensical demands it might not even be seen as a privilege in the near future. 

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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