Thailand school shooting: PM halts new gun licences

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on August 11 that he had ordered authorities to stop issuing licences to possess, buy and carry firearms after a deadly school shooting near Bangkok.

Anutin said he had told the interior ministry and police to halt the licences and called for tighter controls and decisive penalties.

On Friday, a 14-year-old boy shot dead the grandparents who raised him at their home in Nonthaburi, north of Bangkok, before going to his school, killing six others and then killing himself. The dead at the school included five teachers and staff and a 12-year-old girl who died in hospital on Saturday.

The bodies of the teenage shooter and his grandparents were cremated on Tuesday at Tem Rak Samakkhi Buddhist temple, where their caskets were placed alongside portraits and flowers.

Investigators are still seeking a motive. Police said on Sunday that the boy had watched violent videos online and had once brought a BB gun to school. Officials previously said he faced academic-related stress, and a classmate said he had been bullied.

The boy, whom AFP chose not to name, used his grandfather's gun in the killings. Thailand has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the region, and previous promises to tighten gun laws have not stopped repeated shootings.