Thai PM suspends gun licences as teen shooter, grandparents cremated
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NONTHABURI, Thailand: Thailand's prime minister said Tuesday (Aug 11) he had suspended firearms licences after last week's deadly school shooting, as the bodies of the teenage assailant and the grandparents he killed were cremated.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he had ordered the interior ministry and police to stop issuing licences to possess, purchase and carry firearms, and called for "tighter controls and decisive penalties".
On Friday, a 14-year-old boy shot dead the grandparents who raised him at their home in Nonthaburi, north of Bangkok, before killing six others at his school and then turning the gun on himself.
The white caskets of the couple were laid out at the Tem Rak Samakkhi Buddhist temple on Tuesday, alongside their portraits, ahead of their cremation capping a funeral lasting several days.
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The boy's smaller casket was placed to the side at the same temple, surrounded by white flowers.
Among the mourners was Tawee Piewphong, who paid tribute to his brother-in-law - the grandfather - as "a man of few words, but a very kind person".
Speaking to AFP, Tawee expressed shock at the killings, saying he had no idea what motivated the teenager - but also offering compassion.
"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, told AFP she was a relative of the boy and felt deeply sorry 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.
Investigators are still seeking a motive for the shooting, but police said on Sunday the boy had watched violent videos online and once brought a BB gun to school.
Officials said previously that he faced academic-related stress, and a classmate said he was bullied.
"I feel really sorry for the boy," said Somjai Poosod, whose grandchildren attend the school attacked, one of whom 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 heading to the school.
There, he shot dead five teachers and staff and wounded a 12-year-old girl, who died in hospital on Saturday.
Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the region, and past promises of tightening gun laws have not prevented repeated shootings.
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