A 71-year-old former Thai politician, Chalong Riewrang, shot and killed a local administration chief and wounded his driver in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, three days after a 14-year-old student killed eight people at a school in the same province before shooting himself.
Thai former politician shoots local official dead days after school massacre in same province
A 71-year-old former Thai politician, Chalong Riewrang, shot and killed a local administration chief and wounded his driver in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, three days after a 14-year-old student killed eight people at a school in the same province before shooting himself.
Chalong went to the office of Thongchai Yenprasert, the local administration chief whom he described as a friend, to discuss a sum of money he said he was owed. The conversation ended with Chalong firing four shots through the window of Thongchai's car, striking Thongchai and his driver. Thongchai later died from his wounds.
After leaving the scene, Chalong phoned a journalist he knew who was in the middle of a live YouTube broadcast to describe what he had done. Police intercepted him and took him to a station, where he spoke to reporters while smoking a cigarette. He said he had 'not intended to shoot his friend' but had opened fire when the driver also pulled a gun. Police found two guns in the car but said they were not in a condition to have been fired.
On the same day, in Prachinburi, east of Bangkok, a police sergeant shot his wife in the head during an argument while she was driving their car to collect their young son. The car crashed; the sergeant then shot himself in the head. His wife died in hospital.
Thailand has more than 10 million civilian-owned firearms in circulation, according to the source, of which approximately 4 million are unlicensed. The annual number of gun deaths is estimated to range between 2,000 and 3,000. The Thai police do not maintain their own tally. By comparison, the United Kingdom, which has a similar population, records fewer than 50 gun deaths per year.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has ordered measures including the suspension of a government discount gun-purchase scheme and the halting of all new purchase licences. He has also proposed limiting the validity of possession permits, a possible amnesty for unlicensed gun owners, and a new parliamentary law with severe penalties for violations.
The discount purchase scheme, in operation since 2009, has allowed police officers and other officials to buy imported guns — mostly from the United States — at steeply discounted prices, at a rate of around 200,000 guns per year. Those guns can be resold after five years, a practice described as a lucrative business. The scheme has been investigated multiple times over alleged corruption and is believed to be a source of black-market weapons alongside locally made unlicensed firearms.
Similar measures were ordered after a 2022 massacre by a former police officer at a nursery and after a shooting by a 14-year-old at a Bangkok shopping mall in 2023. On both occasions Anutin, then serving as interior minister, announced comparable steps. The discount scheme was suspended after the 2023 shooting but was almost immediately reinstated. A ban on carrying firearms by anyone not on official duty was imposed following another school shooting in February of this year.
In recent asset declarations, more than a dozen Thai government ministers reported owning firearms. The justice minister declared ownership of 10 guns, the minister for the environment and natural resources declared 12, and one female member of parliament declared 48.
Thailand's civilian gun ownership contrasts sharply with neighbouring countries. Indonesia, whose population is roughly four times larger, has approximately 82,000 civilian-owned guns. Malaysia has approximately 107,000, and gun deaths there are described as rare. The Philippines is identified as the only other country in the region with a comparable gun culture and level of gun crime.
- The source does not state the specific province in which the school shooting three days earlier occurred, referring only to it being in the same province as the Chalong incident.
- The source does not identify the name of the province where both the school shooting and the Chalong shooting took place.
- The source does not state whether Chalong Riewrang had been formally charged at the time of writing.
- The source does not state the current condition of Thongchai's driver after the shooting.
- The source does not state the basis for the estimated range of 2,000 to 3,000 annual gun deaths, including who produces that estimate or over what period it applies.
- The source does not state whether the measures announced by Prime Minister Anutin have been formally enacted or remain at the proposal stage.
Read the original at BBC World