14 students dead this year as police, courts push to eliminate street shootings

[Lite Beer]

SPECIAL REPORT
14 students dead this year as police, courts push to eliminate street shootings
THE SUNDAY NATION

BANGKOK: -- SHOOTOUTS among gun-totting vocational college students, which have led to many young lives being taken prematurely, have shed light on the availability of firearms in Bangkok.

The severity of these violent exchanges have often depended on the type of weapons used, the number of students involved and the police response time, said Maj-General Chanthawit Ramasut, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police.

The youths' ability to get access to guns - illegally purchased or home-made - was a major factor in student violence.

An 18-year-old student told police, "we just learned how to create a makeshift gun from metal pipes and other available components from senior students."

Technical students knew how to make such weapons and many made their own guns. Others received guns that were passed on from one generation to another and some just bought guns on the black market or on the Internet, he said.

"Sometimes you can buy old guns from senior students at Bt800-Bt900 apiece," he said.

"It is for self-defence. If we don't attack them, they attack us anyway," the teen said.

Pol Lt-General Prawut Thavornsiri, assistant police chief and police spokesman, said gun-related violence among youths - including those committed by the young or those victimised by the young - is on the rise.

The police have joined forces with the Children's and Juvenile Court to push the matter as a national agenda to establish a steering committee, chaired by the prime minister, to help solve the problem, he added.

According to police, almost 100,000 illegal guns are in circulation in Thailand, excluding newly-made guns.

It is no surprise then that so many students can get their hands on guns.

The first eight months of this year has already seen 33 incidents of student violence, resulting in 14 deaths and 19 injuries; while 36 students have been arrested and prosecuted, ruining their future prospects.

For the families of those killed, the grief was unbearable.

"My son knew that being a vocational college student was risky. He wasn't a wayward child, but a studious person who worked at a part-time job in hopes for a better future. Before he was shot dead, he was about to buy a car because using a motorcycle made him an easier target for rival students.

"I'm devastated by this loss. I wish it happened to me instead of my son. I want my boy back. My heart shattered in pieces like I'm dead too. Now I'm just trying to get by and pray for his peace after life," said a mother who lost her 17-year-old son, a freshman at a Bang Kapi college.

Her husband recalled the moment he heard his son was shot on Ramkhamhaeng Road. "It was like thunder struck my forehead, I prayed he was wounded, not dead. We were told that his heart stopped beating before he reached a doctor," he said. The helplessness of not being able to save him or do something about the murder "felt like death to a father", he said.

Such tragedy was repeated in similar tales of college students killed in brawls or attacks from rivals. Less than a month after this 17-year-old student's death, another Min Buri college student, 18, was shot dead on Ram Inthra Road, leaving his family to grieve.

The most cited reason for attacks was "conflict between rival colleges", Chanthawit said. Bangkok has 13 such "rival colleges" mostly located in Min Buri, Ram-Indra, Hua Mak and Bang Kapi. "Most incidents stemmed from expelled seniors inviting younger schoolmates to fight others," he said, adding most incidents took place from 3pm to 7pm.

The most risky places were shopping malls or Phaholyothin, Sukhumvit, Lat Phrao, Ramkha-mhaeng, Ram-Indra and Seri Thai roads, which run past the colleges in question.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/14-students-dead-this-year-as-police-courts-push-t-30266668.html

-- The Nation 2015-08-16

[clockman]

Casual attitude to death? A so called Buddhist country. With 10 million known guns. We will never understand!

[ChrisY1]

100,00 illegal guns...only......total BS......some 6,500,000 registered....and something like 3,500,000 illegal guns..........!

The cops are just not believable in anything they say!

[Just1Voice]

Get rid of all the uniforms, which identify a particular school, or make all of them wear the same uniform.

Ban the sale of back packs, or anything else, that identifies the school.

Not a perfect solution by any means, but it would be a start by making it impossible to tell which school anyone goes to, thereby cutting down on the random attacks, and maybe saving a few lives.

[EnzoRippo]

Too bad there is no strong and male power in this country who could deal with a couple of brainless kids, invoking article 44, for example. Probably too busy reading Facebook.

[impulse]

Too bad there is no strong and male power in this country who could deal with a couple of brainless kids, invoking article 44, for example. Probably too busy reading Facebook.

And how, exactly, would invoking article 44 work?

Or are you just having a gratuitous go at the General?

[Strangebrew]

Guns don't kill people it is uneducated save face thinking that kills people maybe public hanging where the killers die a slow painful death might slow or even stop the killings.

[Briggsy]

This is an extremely long-running social problem in Thailand and a very well-understood subculture.

Just as a concerted and integrated effort was required to drastically reduce football violence in the UK, the same is required here.

It would need to involve the police, the courts, the government, the colleges all working together to eliminate this particular brand of gang violence.

This has been going on for decades and it is not going to stop any time soon.

[tomacht8]

"It is for self-defence. If we don't attack them, they attack us anyway," the teen said.

18 years of age and so stupid.
The level of intelligence of some students seems indeed to move in the negative range.

Some are lucky that their autonomic nervous system, allowing them to breathe, to eat and to shit.
Dumber as it gets.

[impulse]

"It is for self-defence. If we don't attack them, they attack us anyway," the teen said.

18 years of age and so stupid.

The level of intelligence of some students seems indeed to move in the negative range.

Some are lucky that their autonomic nervous system, allowing them to breathe, to eat and to shit.

Dumber as it gets.

The same can be said of many world "leaders" over the last few thousand years.

As much as I deplore the violence, we haven't given these kids a very good example to live by.

Edited August 16, 2015 by impulse

[rijit]

Guns don't kill people it is uneducated save face thinking that kills people maybe public hanging where the killers die a slow painful death might slow or even stop the killings.

'guns dont kill people' kindly explain ? Jeez the more i look at thia post the more i think, mate you really need to at the very least think more about what your writing and at the worst go get some professional help.

rijit

[Benmart]

Guns don't kill people it is uneducated save face thinking that kills people maybe public hanging where the killers die a slow painful death might slow or even stop the killings.

'guns dont kill people' kindly explain ? Jeez the more i look at thia post the more i think, mate you really need to at the very least think more about what your writing and at the worst go get some professional help.

rijit

I believe that guns, which are inanimate objects, are incapable of "deciding" to kill people. It would be the person using it to make the decision to use this device to kill. The same can be said about edged weapons, etc.

I am not qualified to advise or recommend that someone seek "professional help". I leave that to others who are better qualified than I.

Reading a post and advising professional help is a tactic often used by those that do not have the means to articulate an opposing viewpoint,

[ldiablo]

Guns don't kill people, people kill people.

[diehard60]

first thing you need to do is to get the police to actually do their jobs.