37 Preschoolers Killed from a Daycare Rampage in Thailand

An armed former police officer broke into a daycare center in northeastern Thailand on Thursday. He killed dozens of children and teachers. He fired at random people and escaped the scene. It is the deadliest rampage in the nation’s history. Police identified the suspect as 34 years old former police officer Panya Kamrap. He took his life after he killed his wife and child at home.

Police Major General Paisal Luesomboon told PPTV in an interview that he was fired from the force earlier this year because of drug-related offenses. During the attack, he used multiple weapons, a handgun, a shotgun, and a knife, Paisal added.

Most of the victims are 22 preschoolers, 2 adults, and teachers at the daycare. Thailand’s PM Prayut Chan-o-cha addresses “This shouldn’t happen,… I feel deep sadness toward the victims and their relatives,”

Police didn’t give a full breakdown of the death toll in the early stage. The motive of the crime and more details are under investigation. Drug-related crimes have been steadily climbing in most Asia countries except gun-controlled countries, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan.

Using data from several different sources, at the end of 2017, there were approximately 857 million civilian-held firearms in the world’s 230 countries and territories. Civilian firearms registration data was available for 133 countries and territories. Survey results were used to help establish total gun civilian holdings in 56 countries. The new figure is 32 percent higher than the previous estimate from 2006 when the Small Arms Survey estimated there were approximately 650 million civilian-held firearms. According to the Gunpolicy.org

After the pandemic, Firearms used extremely increased globally. In the U.S., 5 million people got guns as their first weapon during the pandemic according to USNews.com.

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