Thai PM suspends firearm purchase licences after school shooting

BANGKOK, Aug 11 (Reuters) - ‌Thai Prime ​Minister ​Anutin Charnvirakul on Tuesday suspended the issuance of permits to buy firearms and said ‌existing licences would be reviewed, days after a ⁠14-year-old gunman killed nine people.

• Anutin directed a deputy prime ‌minister overseeing legal affairs ‌to expedite a new gun control law, with stronger controls and significantly harsher penalties.

• Police were ​ordered to stop renewing permits that enable people to buy firearms.

• Registered firearms must be kept ⁠at home and cannot be carried in public, Anutin said, reiterating the ​current law.

• For illegal firearms, studies are underway to enact legislation requiring their return ​to the state within a ‌specified period, he said.

• Last week, a teenage student killed six people and ⁠himself at a school outside Bangkok after fatally shooting his grandparents in the Southeast Asian nation's worst mass killing ⁠in nearly four years.

• Thailand had an estimated 10.3 million ​firearms in civilian possession, equating to around 15 guns per 100 residents, the highest rate in the region by a ‌wide margin, according to a 2017 estimate by the Small Arms Survey.

• The ‌education minister proposed new school safety measures to cabinet, ⁠including screening everyone ‌who enters education premises ​for illegal objects and weapons.

(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat, Editing by John ‌Mair)

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