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Just because an idea came from a person you hate does not mean that it would always be a bad idea.
For example, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha’s suggestion to use radios to broadcast public information and communicate during natural disasters was a good suggestion as radio travels farther than an LTE (Long-Term Evolution) broadcast which is a standard for wireless data transmission for mobile phones.
But because the suggestion came from Prayut, many people attacked him for it.
Another example was Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s suggestion for a gun amnesty to reduce the number of illegal firearms.
Gun advocates do not like anything that is related to gun control so their hatred towards the policy was expected.
Many of his opponents were also criticizing it until the government said it is also thinking of doing something similar, the only difference is that the government is not calling it ‘gun amnesty’ as Thaksin put it.
According to Prayut, the government is coming up with a bill to allow people to surrender their illegal firearms, but they will not allow people to register them.
He did not say if this was a no-question-ask surrender policy or not but let’s assume that it is.
A gun amnesty is a good idea for a country where 4 out of 10 million firearms that the public owns are illegal. Homemade guns are also a big problem.
Another thing that Prayut did not mention but Thaksin did was that after the 3 months window for people to surrender their illegal firearms, the police should step up their efforts to make arrests and confiscate more illegal firearms.
The policy was good to hear because no matter what the overall outcome of the policy will be, there will certainly be less guns on the streets and there is nothing wrong with that.
The policy is also being used abroad. Australia did it in 2017 and more than 51,000 firearms were surrendered. Such practice is also being done in the United Kingdom and Canada and they received satisfying results as well.
Some may argue that the real problem with the mass murder in Non Bua Lamphu has nothing to do with gun and drug problems but they are still big problems that have to be addressed and dealt with.
A gun amnesty is something that can be issued almost immediately and it should be done now when there is still substantial public interest in the issue.
What has to be done at the same time is for the government to empower existing agencies to be able to get rid of high-ranking corrupted officials in the police force and military who are dealing with gun suppliers and drug smugglers.
The Prayut administration promised to do this for the past 8 years but there is no improvement because they were not serious about it, either that or they were reluctant to do it.
The corruption within the police promotion system and the mistreatment of low-ranking officers should also be looked at but this military government has been ignoring this issue.
However, getting rid of corruption in this country will take time as always so what can be done now is the gun amnesty.
There were at least 3 shootings with 3 fatalities that made the news within days of the mass murder in Nong Bua Lamphu so what we surely need is less guns in the hands of people who are not fit to use them.
The Interior Ministry’s move to recheck gun holders’ qualifications and confiscate their guns if they were deemed unfit was a good move and that should be followed up with a gun amnesty, and then a major crackdown on illegal gun holders and suppliers and corrupt officials.
If they can do that, we will see less shootings on a daily basis and the country will be a safer place to live.