Tourist shot dead on Koh Phangan

[Rogie]

A British tourist has been killed in Thailand on New Year's Eve.

 

Stephen Ashton was reportedly caught by a stray bullet during a fight between two groups at a bar on Koh Phangan.

 

According to the Bangkok Post, the 22-year old was shot in the upper body in the early hours and taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20883483

 

 

A British tourist has been shot dead while dancing on a beach in Thailand after being caught up in gunfight between two local gangs.

 

Stephen Ashton, 22, was at a New Year's Eve party at a bar on the island of Koh Phangan when he was hit in the crossfire.

 

"He was shot in the side while he was dancing on the beach," said policeman Lieutenant Colonel Somsak Noorod.

 

Mr Ashton was reportedly killed when a man opened fire at a bar on Haad Rin Beach in the early hours of the morning.

 

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/brit-tourist-killed-thailand-gang-attack-165318046.html

[Guest abang]

Wasted....awful...

Isnt safety on everyone's mind when we travel?

[Guest fountainhall]

According to the Guardian, it seems to have been less a case of a "stray bullet" and much more a case of someone deliberately trying to kill.

 

According to witnesses who spoke to police investigators, an argument broke out between two groups of locals at the Zoom Bar, one of the many beachside venues that line Haad Rin.

As one of the men walked away from the bar he reportedly pulled out a gun and fired into the crowd, hitting Ashton in the chest. Ashton was taken to Bandon International hospital but could not be revived.

http://www.guardian....d-thai-new-year

[Guest Jovianmoon]

Although this a terrible tragedy, I am somewhat relieved that the tourist doesn't seem to have been deliberately targeted. So many murders of farang these days... sometimes makes me rethink my visits to the Kingdom.

 

Yes, I'm being selfish there, and it was a gut emotional reaction. I realise the lack of intent towards the tourist is absolutely no consolation to his family and friends. I can't imagine what they must be going through now.

[Guest fountainhall]

There's been a fairly extensive thread in this Forum about gun ownership in the USA, but nothing that I can recall about guns in Thailand. According to GunPolicy.org, there are 3,870,000 registered handguns in private ownership in this country (private ownership of automatic and semi-automatic weapons is illegal). That puts Thailand at #11 out of 178 countries. No-one has any idea of the number of unregistered firearms, apart from it being common knowledge that the level of smuggling of firearms and ammunition into the country is "high". Also there is no regulation of arms brokers and transfer intermediaries.

 

http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/thailand

 

An article in the Bangkok Post last November makes for uneasy reading. 

 

In recent years Thailand has been flooded with illegal firearms and the misery they cause is plain for all to see. Every day there are media reports of shootouts and homicides that begin with domestic quarrels, school rivalries and traffic accidents, and quickly escalate. Law enforcement officials say the root cause is the easy availability of guns, and this is true for teenagers as well as adults. People prefer to buy weapons outside of legal channels because they are much cheaper, and don't involve the hassle of registering the guns as required under Thai law . . .

 

In addition to the growing numbers of smuggled and illegally produced firearms in the country, the Customs Department reports that the annual value of revolvers and pistols legally imported into Thailand is also rapidly increasing. In 2008, the import value was given as 567,495,800 baht. In 2009 this more than doubled to 1.3 billion baht, and reached 1.8 billion baht last year. Most are exported from the US, the Czech Republic and Austria.

 

Many believe that a government scheme is responsible for the sudden jump in imports in 2009, the year a programme giving government officials a 40% discount on firearms purchases went into effect. The justification for the scheme is that it is necessary to supply licensed firearms to government officials for self-protection. However, the programme has become controversial as the debate over the relationship between gun availability and crime heats up.

 

Thanit Noipeng, director of the Investigation and Legal Bureau of the Provincial Administration Department under the Interior Ministry, defended the scheme. He said that most guns recovered in crime suppression operations are obtained illegally. ''They do not use licensed guns in homicides,'' said Mr Thanit.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investigation/321825/easy-gun-access-giving-rise-to-a-wild-west-mentality

 

It is known that at least some 'legal' weapons find their way into criminal hands. The article tells of one homicide where an environmental activist was gunned down. The weapon was traced to an official in the Investigation and Legal Bureau who had purchased it under the 40% discount scheme! The gun had been sold and resold many times.

 

The title of the article is "Easy guns bring Wild West mentality". Sadly, in the case of the tourist on Koh Phangan, that seems all too true.