NCPO admits the existence of armed elements bent on causing violence

[coma]

Truth be known is that this amount of weapons is chicken feed. If these weapons were seized in one seizure that would support the case that there is the existence of an armed group capable of destabilizing the country. However these weapons were mostly seized in dribs and drabs. Lots of countries around the world would have individuals in the population that posses these sorts of weapons illegally.

It is still a good result however. But I think there are a hell of a lot more larger caches out there yet to be seized. We all know of 2 big armoury busts in the past where hundreds of assault rifles were relived from the army and police force. Where are they at ??

Would one of those "big armoury busts" be the one at Phattalung? The one where Thai Visa News reported 6000 guns and explosives stolen?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/345203-6000-guns-and-explosives-stolen-from-thai-army-barracks/#entry3393709

The big armoury bust that actually turned out to be 3000 rounds of ammunition and 20 grenades that were stolen by soldiers over a long period of time?

http://asiancorrespondent.com/29668/pretext-for-checkpoints-and-stoking-fear/

What was the other "big armoury bust" that "we all know about"?

Red shirts stole these in 2010

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/capo-says-27-guns-stolen/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/695526-thai-police-searching-for-firearms-looted-by-protesters/

Unknown subjects stole these in 2011

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/448262-130-m16s-other-guns-stolen-from-thai-army-depot/

There is another one which I cannot provide links to as they have apparently been blocked by NCPO. And other links are from Thai language sources.You can search for them yourself.

[tingtongteesood]

Armed elements? Terrorists in the south, yes.

Who else? More Cambodians, some unknown reds, the Hmong, a few rapists, bank/gold robbers, those darn warring school kids, drunks, whoever I suppose.

Terrorists in the north actually especially around Khon Kaen if you bothered to try and keep up with the recent news events....Oh and some around Chiang Mai too, RED IDIOTS CENTRAL for your information....

[Strangebrew]

Whoa!!! at first glance thought it read armed Elephants so had to read sorry.

[Strangebrew]

Guess time for new glasses.

[SamMunich]

The problem of illegal weapons will never be solved as long as it is so easy to smuggle in weapons left, right and center. Beside that, it's a cultural thing, that people think, they need a weapon or that they are incomplete personalitiies without a weapon. Say thank you to the Americans. And as long as there is a policy, that the one with more power can do as he pleases, everybody tries to gain power by having a weapon.

And all that is beside the fact, that some have hidden weapons for the big final countdown between political sides.

I would like to personally nominate this post as the most moronic America

bashing post ever seen on TV. Along the same line, I also propose some

sort of basic IQ test prior to being allowed to join TV.

America is to blame for militants in Thailand having weapons ? Wow.

Wait a minute. Was that statement satire ??

I would like you to do a comprehensive reading test before you post.

A comprehensive reading test or a reading comprehension test?

I'm a liberal, I leave it up to you <wg>...

[transam]

The problem of illegal weapons will never be solved as long as it is so easy to smuggle in weapons left, right and center. Beside that, it's a cultural thing, that people think, they need a weapon or that they are incomplete personalitiies without a weapon. Say thank you to the Americans. And as long as there is a policy, that the one with more power can do as he pleases, everybody tries to gain power by having a weapon.

And all that is beside the fact, that some have hidden weapons for the big final countdown between political sides.

Total rolox, you big farang have problem with Thai lose face, they will probably find a shooter to regain face.....

[SamMunich]

Rickirs wrote:

The problem of illegal weapons will never be solved as long as it is so easy to smuggle in weapons left, right and center. Beside that, it's a cultural thing, that people think, they need a weapon or that they are incomplete personalitiies without a weapon. Say thank you to the Americans. And as long as there is a policy, that the one with more power can do as he pleases, everybody tries to gain power by having a weapon.

And all that is beside the fact, that some have hidden weapons for the big final countdown between political sides.

What do you expect in a society where over the last 80 years there have been 13 military coups? Government by the gun is a Thai cultural tradition. How can you expect its citizens to have hope for a peaceful democracy? If the Democrats thought they could not (at least according to Suthep) rely on military intervention to prevail politically, they would either resort to weapons or free and open elections but obviously the latter has never worked. Compare this to America which has some of the most liberal gun laws in the world and never in its almost 240-year history never had regime change through military coup.

Sorry, there is no relieve in numbers. Most if not all coups were restricted to powergrabbing by top-echelon military folks, getting their opponents grabbed and taken away, but with nearly or no fighting at all. Pibulsongkram, Sarit, Thanom and later Suchinda or Sonthi in 2006. So that can't be the reason for the widespread ownership of weapons. The weapons used by military and police are "legal" weapons, they "own" the state monopoly on weapons and on killing others.

Weapons among regular citizens are most likely used in private altercations or fighting to gain advantage in a business (like illegal poaching, illegal ressorts, getting farmers off their land). They have little (as opposed to nothing!) to do with politics, except in situations like the red vs. yellow fights. The only ones to train to use weapons in a formation are the red shirts prior to 2010, when they had training in nearly every changwat in the Isaan.

And if I compare this with the USA? There are daily killings, nearly monthly killing spees at schools and all this would of course also happen, if there was no free gun ownership. That's why these school massacre also happen every once in a while in Western Europe, e.g. in GB or FRG. France is a sligthly different story with their North-Africans.

Back to Thailand: The military has always been involved in politics, since they (together with civil servants) overthrew the absolute monarchy. Their influence is diminishing, but it is still there and if the top guy thinks enough is enough they will just intervene. Still I think a coup in Thailand is very different from a coup e.g. in Africa. And that's what Western governments fail to realize.

[Morch]

Rickirs wrote:

The problem of illegal weapons will never be solved as long as it is so easy to smuggle in weapons left, right and center. Beside that, it's a cultural thing, that people think, they need a weapon or that they are incomplete personalitiies without a weapon. Say thank you to the Americans. And as long as there is a policy, that the one with more power can do as he pleases, everybody tries to gain power by having a weapon.

And all that is beside the fact, that some have hidden weapons for the big final countdown between political sides.

What do you expect in a society where over the last 80 years there have been 13 military coups? Government by the gun is a Thai cultural tradition. How can you expect its citizens to have hope for a peaceful democracy? If the Democrats thought they could not (at least according to Suthep) rely on military intervention to prevail politically, they would either resort to weapons or free and open elections but obviously the latter has never worked. Compare this to America which has some of the most liberal gun laws in the world and never in its almost 240-year history never had regime change through military coup.

Sorry, there is no relieve in numbers. Most if not all coups were restricted to powergrabbing by top-echelon military folks, getting their opponents grabbed and taken away, but with nearly or no fighting at all. Pibulsongkram, Sarit, Thanom and later Suchinda or Sonthi in 2006. So that can't be the reason for the widespread ownership of weapons. The weapons used by military and police are "legal" weapons, they "own" the state monopoly on weapons and on killing others.

Weapons among regular citizens are most likely used in private altercations or fighting to gain advantage in a business (like illegal poaching, illegal ressorts, getting farmers off their land). They have little (as opposed to nothing!) to do with politics, except in situations like the red vs. yellow fights. The only ones to train to use weapons in a formation are the red shirts prior to 2010, when they had training in nearly every changwat in the Isaan.

And if I compare this with the USA? There are daily killings, nearly monthly killing spees at schools and all this would of course also happen, if there was no free gun ownership. That's why these school massacre also happen every once in a while in Western Europe, e.g. in GB or FRG. France is a sligthly different story with their North-Africans.

Back to Thailand: The military has always been involved in politics, since they (together with civil servants) overthrew the absolute monarchy. Their influence is diminishing, but it is still there and if the top guy thinks enough is enough they will just intervene. Still I think a coup in Thailand is very different from a coup e.g. in Africa. And that's what Western governments fail to realize.

Under both TRT/PPP/PTP and Democrat Party governments, Thailand had pretty impressive rates of firearms related violence.

Sort of dropped considerably since the RTA took over. This refers both to criminal and political related violence.

Even with the RTA at the helm, Thailand sees almost daily shooting violence down South.

There were quite a bit of political violence this decade, by parties which weren't the army, there's ongoing political violence

down South, also not always by the army.

Better or worse than the USA? Guess it is a matter of perception. On a personal level, I'm more worried about criminal violence,

but at the same time think that political violence is generally more of a no no.

[northernjohn]

The problem of illegal weapons will never be solved as long as it is so easy to smuggle in weapons left, right and center. Beside that, it's a cultural thing, that people think, they need a weapon or that they are incomplete personalitiies without a weapon. Say thank you to the Americans. And as long as there is a policy, that the one with more power can do as he pleases, everybody tries to gain power by having a weapon.

And all that is beside the fact, that some have hidden weapons for the big final countdown between political sides.

Well you may be right but. I don't think that has been the case in most of the seizures. There was more than one weapon seized from one person. Many of them had multiple weapons. Remember They were going to raise an army of 600,000 and urging people to store weapons. Many of these weapons are not power weapons they are war weapons.

In a way it is kind of funny they leave their armed willing to be terrorists here and move their Governmental types out of the country so they can't get hurt.

The only problem they are having with that is no country is willing to let them set up shop.

Edit

spelling

Edited June 30, 2014 by northernjohn

[metisdead]

Off topic comparisons with gun violence in the USA has been removed as well as the replies.

[Morch]

The problem of illegal weapons will never be solved as long as it is so easy to smuggle in weapons left, right and center. Beside that, it's a cultural thing, that people think, they need a weapon or that they are incomplete personalitiies without a weapon. Say thank you to the Americans. And as long as there is a policy, that the one with more power can do as he pleases, everybody tries to gain power by having a weapon.

And all that is beside the fact, that some have hidden weapons for the big final countdown between political sides.

Well you may be right but. I don't think that has been the case in most of the seizures. There was more than one weapon seized from one person. Many of them had multiple weapons. Remember They were going to raise an army of 600,000 and urging people to store weapons. Many of these weapons are not power weapons they are war weapons.

In a way it is kind of funny they leave their armed willing to be terrorists here and move their Governmental types out of the country so they can't get hurt.

The only problem they are having with that is no country is willing to let them set up shop.

Edit

spelling

In some of the arrests there were more weapons than suspects, in some the opposite. In some cases, arrests more arrests

followed the initial discovery. As far as I understand the weapons displayed include those left for the RTA to be find, taking

advantage of the grace period - wouldn't be any arrests in connection with those. Do not know the total number of people

arrested or detained with regard to possession of illegal weapons (again, reports being what they are) but seemed like there

were quite a lot of them. Guess the RTA got a detailed breakdown, but not something they normally release (and the local

press does not ask).

The 600k bravado...well, depends if you take that literally. Not that it matters in terms of forming an illegal underground, but

kinda doubt they ever had anywhere near this number of recruits (for comparison - the RTA is 250K strong, I think). Arming

600K people and forming them into an army was never an endeavor likely to become a threat - but it doesn't matter all that

much, as the saying goes: "it's the thought that counts".

[djjamie]

The NCPO admits (three times as well ) ?

Probably something lost in translation. I would expect something like "NCPO revealed", or "NCPO stated"

Maybe "NCPO Claimed"?

With what the Democracy Restoration Team have done in the past month it is more like "The NCPO have achieved"

May peace and reconciliation be with you my dear dear friend.

Goodbye!