Thai PM vows action on guns after deadly mall shooting

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's prime minister on Wednesday vowed "preventive measures" after a shooting at a Bangkok shopping mall left two people dead and raised fresh questions about the kingdom's gun control.

Shoppers returned in dribs and drabs as the Siam Paragon mall reopened less than 24 hours after the shooting -- Thailand's third high-profile deadly gun attack in four years.

The shooting at one of Bangkok's biggest, most upmarket malls will come as a fresh blow to Thailand's efforts to rebuild its vital tourism industry after the pandemic.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin joined a minute's silence at the mall before offering the government's condolences to the families of the two female victims -- one Chinese and one from Myanmar.

"I am confident Siam Paragon and government officials did their best to minimize the casualties and damage," he said.

"Let this be the only time this happens. My government insists we will give priority to preventive measures," he added, without giving details.

The victim from Myanmar was named by her country's foreign ministry as 31-year-old Moe Myint.

Police have charged a 14-year-old suspect with premeditated murder, attempted murder, carrying and firing a gun in a public place and owning an unlicensed firearm.

Police Major General Nakarin Sukontawit said the boy, a student at a $4,000-a-term private school just metres from Siam Paragon, was undergoing psychiatric tests to see if he would be fit to stand trial.

Investigators said Tuesday the boy had been undergoing treatment for mental illness but had stopped taking his medication and reported hearing voices telling him to shoot people.

UNICEF Thailand deputy representative Severine Leonardi said the incident should accelerate efforts to improve the kingdom's youth mental health services.

- Past promises -

Samran Nuanma, Assistant National Police Chief, told a news conference on Wednesday that the weapon used in the attack was a blank-firing pistol.

"But the barrel was modified for live shooting," Samran said.

"We will increase regulations and laws to control the use of firearms."

But past promises of tightening gun laws have not prevented tragedies.

The Siam Paragon shooting came just days before the anniversary of a massacre at a nursery in northern Thailand that left 36 people dead.

And in 2020, a former army officer gunned down 29 people in a rampage at a mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima.

By one estimate, Thailand has 10 million guns in circulation -- one for every seven citizens, and one of the highest rates of ownership in the region.

Many firearms are smuggled into the country, but Kritsanapong Phutrakul, a former police officer and now academic, said internet sales were becoming a problem.

"Only a small number of police officers have the knowledge, capabilities and experience to track the gun market online," he told AFP.

After talks with the PM, National Police Chief Torsak Sukwimol said he had ordered specialist officers to investigate online gun sales.

- Tourism impact -

Thailand is desperate to rebuild its tourism sector after travel restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic saw visitors dwindle.

China -- which sent around 10 million visitors a year to the kingdom before the pandemic -- is a crucial market, but numbers are not returning as fast as Thai officials would wish.

This is partly because of fears in China about whether Thailand is safe, and the fact that one of the mall shooting victims was Chinese is unlikely to improve this situation.

Srettha spoke to the Chinese ambassador Tuesday and issued a statement saying the government would implement "the highest safety measures" for tourists.

At Siam Paragon on Wednesday, AFP reporters saw that security was stepped up in some places, with bags being searched -- but not on all entrances to the sprawling mall.

Russian tourist Alexander Samylin, 35, told AFP he was not worried about safety.

"It's very safe here in Thailand, this could happen anywhere," he said at the mall.

Agence France-Presse

Fil-Am Tennessee lawmaker expelled over gun control protest to be reseated

WASHINGTON - A city council in Tennessee voted Monday to send a Democratic lawmaker back to the state's legislature days after he was expelled for disrupting a session with calls for stricter gun control laws.

Filipino-American lawmaker Justin Jones and another Democratic colleague, both of whom are Black, were expelled by Republican lawmakers last Thursday after they disrupted an assembly session, demanding stricter gun controls in the wake of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Nashville.

A third legislator who joined their protest -- a white woman -- was not removed, sparking accusations of racism around the case and fueling anger among Democrats well beyond Tennessee.

President Joe Biden has invited all three lawmakers to the White House, while Kamala Harris -- the first Black vice president in US history -- attended a rally in Nashville in support of the "Tennessee Three."

The Nashville Metropolitan Council voted Monday afternoon to send Jones back to his seat in the state legislature on an interim basis, pending a special election.

The seat that had been held by the other expelled Black lawmaker, Justin Pearson, will be discussed Wednesday at a meeting of the Shelby County board of commissioners, news reports said.

Agence France-Presse

Heartbroken by gun violence: Rallies across US demand change

WASHINGTON — They came from a place of heartbreak to claim their spot in history: Hundreds of thousands of teenagers and supporters, rallying across the United States for tougher laws to fight gun violence.

The “March for Our Lives” events on Saturday drew massive crowds in cities across the country, marking the largest youth-led protests since the Vietnam War era.

In Washington, D.C., New York City, Denver, Los Angeles and other cities, demonstrators heard from student survivors of last month’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

“If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking,” Parkland survivor David Hogg said to roars from protesters packing Pennsylvania Avenue from a stage near the Capitol to a spot many blocks away toward the White House. “We’re going to take this to every election, to every state and every city. We’re going to make sure the best people get in our elections to run, not as politicians but as Americans.

“Because this,” he said, pointing behind him to the Capitol dome, “this is not cutting it.”

The message at the different rallies was consistent, with demonstrators vowing to vote out lawmakers who refuse to take a stand now on gun control. Many rallies had tables where volunteers helped those 18 or older register to vote while speakers detailed the policies they wanted and the impact gun violence has had on their lives.

The fire alarm at Trenton High School is scary, said 17-year-old Gabrielle James at a march in suburban Detroit.

“We don’t know if it’s an actual drill or if someone’s actually inside the school, going to take your life,” James said at a march in Detroit.

She said government has “extremely failed” to protect students from gun violence and she wants restrictions on automatic weapons.

“I work extremely hard at my studies. Sometimes I just sit in my car before going to school, wondering if I’m going to be home to see my mother after school,” James said.

Some of the young voices were very young. Yolanda Renee King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 9-year-old granddaughter, drew from the civil rights leader’s most famous words in declaring from the Washington, D.C., stage: “I have a dream that enough is enough. That this should be a gun-free world. Period.”

By all appearances — there were no official numbers — Washington’s March for Our Lives rally rivaled the women’s march last year that drew far more than the predicted 300,000.

The National Rifle Association went silent on Twitter as the protests unfolded, in contrast to its reaction to the nationwide school walkouts against gun violence March 14, when it tweeted a photo of an assault rifle and the message “I’ll control my own guns, thank you.”

President Donald Trump was in Florida for the weekend and did not weigh in on Twitter either.

White House spokesman Zach Parkinson said: “We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their First Amendment rights today.” He also pointed to Trump’s efforts to ban bump stocks and his support for school-safety measures and extended background checks for gun purchases.

Since the bloodshed in Florida, students have tapped into a current of gun control sentiment that has been building for years — yet still faces a powerful foe in the NRA, its millions of supporters and lawmakers who have resisted any encroachment on gun rights.

Organizers are hoping the electricity of the crowds, their sheer numbers and the under-18 roster of speakers will create a tipping point, starting with the midterm congressional elections this fall. To that end, chants of “Vote them out!” rang through the Washington crowd.

Emma Gonzalez, one of the first students from Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to speak out after the tragedy there, implored those of voting age to cast ballots.

In her speech, she recited the names of the Parkland dead, then held the crowd in rapt, tearful silence for more than six minutes, the time it took the gunman to kill them.

“We will continue to fight for our dead friends,” Delaney Tarr, another Parkland survivor, declared from the stage. The crowd roared with approval as she laid down the students’ central demand: a ban on “weapons of war” for all but warriors.

Student protesters called for a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault-type weapons like the one used by the killer in Parkland, comprehensive background checks, and a higher minimum age to buy guns.

Gun violence was fresh for some who watched the speakers in Washington. Ayanne Johnson of Great Mills High School in Maryland held a sign declaring, “I March for Jaelynn,” honoring Jaelynn Willey, who died Thursday, two days after being shot by a classmate at the school. The gunman also died.

About 30 gun-rights supporters staged a counter-demonstration in front of FBI headquarters, standing quietly with signs such as “Armed Victims Live Longer” and “Stop Violating Civil Rights.” Other gun-control protests around the country were also met with small counter-demonstrations.

The president’s call to arm certain teachers fell flat at the protest, and among critics as young as Zoe Tate, 11, from Gaithersburg, Maryland.

“I think guns are dumb. It’s scary enough with the security guards we have in school,” she said. “We don’t need teachers carrying guns now. I find it amazing that I have to explain that idea to adults.”

Parkland itself was home to a rally as more than 20,000 people filled a park near the Florida school, chanting slogans such as “Enough is enough” and carrying signs that read “Why do your guns matter more than our lives?” and “Our ballots will stop bullets.”

Around the country, protesters complained that they are scared of getting shot in school and tired of inaction by grown-ups after a series of mass shootings.

“People have been dying since 1999 in Columbine and nothing has changed. People are still dying,” said Ben Stewart, a 17-year-old senior at Shiloh Hills Christian School in Kennesaw, Georgia, who took part in a march in Atlanta.

Callie Cavanaugh, a 14-year-old at a march in Omaha, Nebraska, said: “This just needs to stop. It’s been going on my entire life.”

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net