Thailand daycare shooting raises issue of drug use
Thailand daycare centre shooting raises issues of drug use and gun control ahead of next year’s elections. According to local authorities, a lone attacker killed at least 37 people on Thursday, October 6, at a daycare centre in Thailand’s northeastern province of Nong Bua Lamphu. At least 24 children are among those who died, and the alleged shooter allegedly killed his wife and child before turning the pistol on himself.
The suspected murderer was a former police officer who had been fired over drug charges and was now standing trial on a charge of possessing methamphetamine. After a truly trying couple of years since the start of COVID-19, this terrible tragedy will spark a national conversation about drug usage, gun regulation, and problems of mental health in advance of the next election, which is expected to take place around May 2023.
Mass shootings by a lone gunman are extremely rare in Thailand that’s why daycare centre shooting raises issue of drug use, “There’s never been mass community outrage about gun control in Thailand, although the nursery shooting massacre may spark a reckoning”, says a lecturer.
There has only been one other analogous episode in recent American history, besides the shooting at the nursery. That happened in Nakhon Ratchasima in February 2020 when a disgruntled Thai soldier shot and murdered 29 people and injured 58 others, the majority of whom were at a mall.
Thailand daycare shooting raises issue of drug use
Other large-scale shootings have happened after the military dispersed gatherings of people. For instance, the 1992 Black May mass protests, which resulted in the deaths of over 50 civilians, and the 2010 military crackdown on “red shirt” protestors, which resulted in the deaths of slightly under 100 individuals.
Cremation ceremonies were held Tuesday for the children and other victims of last week's daycare massacre in northeast Thailand, marking an end to 3 days of Buddhist funeral rites.
It was the deadliest mass killing by an individual in Thailand's history https://t.co/9b2s1crHvj pic.twitter.com/tsd8yQZ951
— Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals) October 11, 2022
