PHUKET: A crackdown on guns on Phuket is likely when Phuket Police Commander Major General Pachara Boonyasit meets the island's 10 station superintendents today in an emergency session.
With a road rage killer on the loose after shooting dead a motorcycle taxi driver in front of his 10-year-old son, a manhunt is continuing across the island.
Two kratom leaf dealers arrested on Wednesday were both armed with guns.
''It seems Phuket has too many guns,'' the commander said yesterday in something of an understatement.
In the wake of the stabbing murder of Australian tourist Michelle Smith in 2012, the then Australian ambassador, James Wise, called for all guns and knives to be obliterated from Phuket. Nothing happened.
Now, it seems, the arrival of Major General Pachara could deliver an all-out attempt to wipe weapons off the streets.
Although the national government has called for all war weapons to be handed in at police stations, guns and knives remain in the hands of too many people who are not in the armed services.
''It may be time we did something about this,'' said the commander.
The major general has said his top priority is to purge drugs from Phuket but the number of weapons in the hands of wrongdoers may trigger a second campaign.
The pressure will also be on police - particularly at the Phuket City station - to quickly capture the gunman who yesterday killed a man in broad daylight after an argument in Thepkasattri Road then calmly rode off.
The commander began his stay on Phuket well by coming up with a cunning plan to put officers in 7-Eleven stores after serial robberies at five of them. His idea succeeded in quickly catching the armed bandit.
Robberies by bandits and bag-snatchers using guns and knives occur too frequently on Phuket, where a large number of international tourists add to the need for weapons on the streets to be wiped out.
With a road rage killer on the loose after shooting dead a motorcycle taxi driver in front of his 10-year-old son, a manhunt is continuing across the island.
Two kratom leaf dealers arrested on Wednesday were both armed with guns.
''It seems Phuket has too many guns,'' the commander said yesterday in something of an understatement.
In the wake of the stabbing murder of Australian tourist Michelle Smith in 2012, the then Australian ambassador, James Wise, called for all guns and knives to be obliterated from Phuket. Nothing happened.
Now, it seems, the arrival of Major General Pachara could deliver an all-out attempt to wipe weapons off the streets.
Although the national government has called for all war weapons to be handed in at police stations, guns and knives remain in the hands of too many people who are not in the armed services.
''It may be time we did something about this,'' said the commander.
The major general has said his top priority is to purge drugs from Phuket but the number of weapons in the hands of wrongdoers may trigger a second campaign.
The pressure will also be on police - particularly at the Phuket City station - to quickly capture the gunman who yesterday killed a man in broad daylight after an argument in Thepkasattri Road then calmly rode off.
The commander began his stay on Phuket well by coming up with a cunning plan to put officers in 7-Eleven stores after serial robberies at five of them. His idea succeeded in quickly catching the armed bandit.
Robberies by bandits and bag-snatchers using guns and knives occur too frequently on Phuket, where a large number of international tourists add to the need for weapons on the streets to be wiped out.
It may be time we did something about this.
Bit of an understate mt there I think
Posted by rich on October 31, 2014 08:25