Thailand Tightens Gun Laws Again After Teen Uses Grandfather’s Registered Handgun

AmmoLand ^ | August 11, 2026 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

On August 7, 2026, a 14-year-old Thai student murdered his grandparents, took his grandfather’s legally registered handgun, and carried it to Debsirin Nonthaburi School outside Bangkok. He killed six people at the school and wounded 23 before shooting himself. Eight victims were killed in all. The Thai government has now suspended firearm-purchase permits, ordered a review of existing licenses, and called for harsher restrictions.

In July of 2025, a mass murderer killed five people and then committed suicide at a Bangkok market.

Thailand had imposed even more restrictions on its already restrictive gun control measures in 2023. In 2023, a 14-year-old killed two and wounded five in a shopping center in Bangkok. In 2022, a former police officer killed 36 people, including his wife, his son, and 22 children. The former police officer used a gun and a knife. In 2020, a soldier killed 29 people in a mass murder with a gun in Nakhon Ratchasima.

Thailand has very strict gun control laws.

It was not always so. In 1947, mandatory registration, licensing, and permits for civilian ownership were instituted. Licensing for self-defense is relatively common in rural areas.

Self-defense is considered a legitimate reason to apply for a firearm permit. Carry permits for public areas are difficult to obtain. The Small Arms Survey estimated that Thai civilians possessed 10.34 million firearms in 2017, about 15.1 firearms per 100 residents. Ammunition ownership is tightly regulated. Reloading ammunition is banned. Resistance to the strict laws is common. Approximately 6.22 million were registered, and 4.12 million were estimated to be unregistered. Thailand has an estimated total firearms-related death rate of about 4 per 100K population.  The homicide rate with firearms is about 1 per 100K

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: banglist; mass; murder; thailand

[marktwain]

Thailand has had several mass murders with firearms in recent years. Gun control laws in Thailand are much stricter than they are in the USA.

[fireman15]

In Idaho recently an idiot with mass murder obviously his intent was prevented from a killing a large number of people by armed citizens. Somehow this story which didn’t fit the narrative was flushed down the media memory hole almost immediately. No one I have asked about it in the Puget Sound region had any idea what I was even talking about.

[Ancesthntr]

Nothing like blaming the innocent for what criminals or the insane do. Glad I don’t live there.

[redfreedom]

I fully understand the situation and do not blame Thailand for tightening gun laws. I mean, after all, that nasty handgun persuaded the teen to just shoot the grandparents. Then that mean old handgun just went on to force the poor victim kid to shoot others.

[PAR35]

24 shots from a handgun?

[Nateman]

This cure is always worse than the disease. A nut job with a gun cannot kill anywhere near what a nut job ruling a country can. Iran is the latest example of that .

[Scrambler Bob]

24 shots?

Maybe it had the extra big, bad ‘clips’.

[MtnClimber]

Why not punish the politicians and government employees for what a criminal constituent does? “Punish an innocent person for what a criminal does?” you may be asking. YES! I got the idea from them. The law abiding citizens must be getting tired of being the only ones getting punished.

[marktwain]

Politicians and government employees are notoriously hard to punish...

[MtnClimber]

I know the politicians and government employees would never be punished. Just demanding it may force them to consider the unfairness of being punished for something they did not do. They seem not to see it when they are restricting the general population, but maybe they would if they considered that the same could be done to them.