A day after a 14-year-old opened fire at his school and in his home north of Bangkok, Thailand’s prime minister announced a sweeping pause on firearms licences as families gathered to cremate the boy and the grandparents he killed.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he had instructed the interior ministry and police to halt the issuing of licences to possess, purchase and carry firearms, while urging “tighter controls and decisive penalties”.
On Friday, the teenager shot dead the grandparents who had raised him at their house in Nonthaburi before going to his school, where he killed six more people and later took his own life.
At the Tem Rak Samakkhi Buddhist temple, the couple’s white caskets were arranged alongside portraits of them, ahead of a cremation that concluded funeral rites spanning several days.
Nearby, the boy’s smaller casket sat apart at the same temple, ringed by white flowers.
Tawee Piewphong, among those paying respects, remembered his brother-in-law — the grandfather — as “a man of few words, but a very kind person”.
Officials pay their respects at the Tem Rak Samakkhi Buddhist temple
Mr Tawee said the killings left him stunned, and he could not understand what drove the teenager, though he also voiced empathy.
“I want to tell him that being 14 is just a small fraction of your entire life, and every problem has a solution. Not everything is the end of the world,” the 70-year-old said.
He suggested the boy may have killed his grandparents “so they would not be responsible for the actions he was going to take at school later”.
Ajima, who asked that her surname be withheld for privacy reasons, said she is related to the boy and described feeling profound sorrow for him.
“A boy at that age is like a blank piece of fabric. He must have gone through a lot of issues, but nobody knows why he resorted to shooting as a solution. I feel terribly sorry for him,” she said.
Police have yet to determine a motive, though officers said on Sunday the boy had watched violent videos online and had previously brought a BB gun to school.
Investigators are still seeking a motive for the shooting
Authorities have said he was under academic-related stress, and a classmate reported he was bullied.
“I feel really sorry for the boy,” said Somjai Poosod, whose grandchildren attend the targeted school, including one who was a friend of the shooter.
“Of course I feel bad for the innocent people who were killed, but I feel there is an issue of mental health that we may need to address to prevent incidents like this from happening again,” she added.
The shooter, who AFP is choosing not to name, used his grandfather’s gun to kill his grandparents before making his way to the school.
There, he shot dead five teachers and staff, and wounded a 12-year-old girl who later died in hospital on Saturday.
Thailand ranks among the region’s highest for gun ownership, and earlier pledges to tighten firearms laws have failed to stop a series of shootings.
