Thai PM suspends gun licences as teen shooter, grandparents cremated

JUST IN: Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul suspends gun licences and calls for 'decisive penalties' for firearms offences, as the teenage shooter and his grandparents are cremated.

Thailand just froze gun licences. Nationwide.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul made the call today, demanding what he called decisive penalties for firearms offences. And the timing tells you everything — it came as a teenage shooter and his grandparents were cremated. These are the mourners at the ceremony. Flowers keep arriving at the memorial too, and police tape is still up at the building where it happened.

When a shooting puts a kid and his own grandparents on the same pyre, a country stops arguing about details. Thailand has one of the highest rates of civilian gun ownership in Asia, and every government has promised a crackdown after a tragedy. The promises usually outlive the headlines by about a month.

So here's what I'd actually trade on: Thailand passes tougher firearms penalties into law within six months.

This is Kateryna Kovalenko, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at channelnewsasia.com