The Thai government will propose an amnesty for owners of unregistered firearms, a move raised in the wake of a shooting at a day care center that left 37 dead, including 24 children, last October.
Ratchada Thanadirek, a government spokesperson, said in a statement on Wednesday that those who possess weapons illegally will have the possibility to register or return them without penalty during the 180 days after the approval of the law, for which there is still no date. .
The bill was approved on Tuesday during the last meeting of the Government, which plans to dissolve Parliament in the coming days and officially call general elections scheduled for the beginning of May.
The proposed legislation, once passed, will boost the government's ability to tighten protection measures on gun ownership and more effectively control the movement of firearms into Thailand, Ratchada said.
In recent years there have been several armed incidents perpetrated by police and military in Thailand.
In October 2022, a former police officer expelled for drug matters killed 36 people, including 24 children aged 5 or younger, in a small hamlet in the northeast of the country, before committing suicide, in one of the worst attacks on educational centers ever. in the world.
Meanwhile, in February 2020, a heavily armed soldier killed 29 people and injured more than fifty at various points in the town of Nakhon Ratchasima, some 250 kilometers from Bangkok, including a popular shopping mall, until he was shot down.
These incidents have led several politicians to call for urgent reform of the laws that allow the possession of firearms in Thailand.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
