Government vows new gun law after Nonthaburi school shooting kills eight.
Thailand’s government has vowed to introduce a new firearms control law restricting who can carry guns in public, hours after a school shooting on the outskirts of Bangkok left at least eight people dead.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who previously tightened gun regulations while serving as interior minister, announced the plan on Friday, 7 August 2026, hours after the shooting at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Bang Kruai district, Nonthaburi.
“The new law will only allow government officials on duty to carry guns,” Anutin told reporters.
He gave no further details on the proposed legislation, including whether it will also tighten the requirements for owning a firearm. Under current Thai rules, separate licences are issued for owning and for carrying a gun.
In the attack, a Thai teenager shot dead his grandparents before killing at least five more people and then himself at the school.
Thailand’s gun ownership problem
Thailand has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in Southeast Asia. An estimated 10.3 million firearms were in civilian hands as of a 2017 estimate by the Small Arms Survey, equivalent to around 15 guns per 100 residents. Of those, just over 6 million were registered, while an estimated 4 million were unregistered.
Mass shootings have recurred regularly in the country. They include the October 2023 shooting at a Bangkok shopping mall and a 2022 killing spree in the northeast that left 36 people dead, including 22 children.
Past reforms fell short, expert says
After the 2023 mall shooting, Anutin, then interior minister, ordered a round of gun control measures, including a temporary halt on new licences, tighter import restrictions and a ban on people under 20 using shooting ranges. Longer-term proposals at the time included a mental health certificate for gun owners and set validity periods for some licences.
Much of that has not materialised. Thailand’s licensing system still has no mental health screening for applicants, still allows people as young as 20 to own a gun, and still does not require licence holders to be periodically reassessed, according to Piyaporn Tunneekul, an associate professor at Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University.
Piyaporn said the current system focuses on the wrong questions.
“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.
She pointed to “red-flag” laws used elsewhere that allow firearms to be removed from people considered a risk to themselves or others, reported Bangkok Post.
“We need intervention, a process like other countries have,” Piyaporn said. “So these events repeat, but the state does nothing.”
If you or anyone you know is in emotional distress, please contact the Samaritans of Thailand 24-hour hotline: 02 713 6791 (English), 02 713 6793 (Thai), or the Thai Mental Health Hotline at 1323 (Thai). Please also contact your friends or relatives at this time if you have feelings of loneliness, stress, or depression. Seek help.
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