I don’t expect much from the BBC. A government-funded “news” organization answering to an anti-gun government? Please, spare me.
However, that doesn’t mean I give them a pass when they piss me off with their anti-gun stupidity. Far from it, actually, and boy did they find a way to roll in the stupid, then set themselves on fire so it stinks up the entire internet.
As Thailand has dominated a lot of firearm-related news from the mainstream media, it’s safe to say that a lot of people figure the country has a problem. And, considering they’re seemingly catching up with us on mass killings, it’s probably not unfair to admit that they do.
But the BBC’s headline lays down their take on the problem in the dumbest way possible: “Thailand has a gun problem – 10 million of them”
The Thai police do not keep their own tally, but in recent years the number of gun deaths every year is estimated to range between 2,000 and 3,000. In Britain, which has a similar population, the number is less than 50.
Guns are sometimes used in robberies, and for a relatively modest fee you can hire a hitman in Thailand to kill someone for you. But the typical gun death occurs during domestic disputes, financial disagreements, or in bar brawls fuelled by alcohol.
Thailand has more than 10 million civilian-owned guns in circulation – 4 million of those unlicensed. So that means minor altercations over trivial issues can suddenly turn lethal.
“It’s very unfortunate that Thailand has a very high tolerance for violence,” says Boonwara Sumano at the Thailand Development Research Institute.
“Guns are seen as a status symbol, and there are so many ways that civilians can get them. Also, showing strength, wielding power, is seen as the right thing to do in Thai society. So, when you have a norm that promotes the possession of weapons to show your strength, and access to those weapons, this is the result.”
The issue here is that the BBC has declared each of those 10 million firearms a problem, whether they meant to or not, and I think they did.
Yet let’s look at what we can see here. There’s a lot of violence in the city, including robberies and murder-for-hire. That means that at least some of those 10 million guns are clearly for self-defense. That’s one of the reasons people get gun licenses there, after all, and I applaud them for not being like many other countries and saying that’s not a good enough reason.
But look deeper, and what do you see?
What I see is a culture that sees violence as a means to an end. It’s a place that values guns not because they value the right to have them or as a means to protect them and theirs, but as a status symbol associated with strength and power. That’s an issue in and of itself.
And we have a similar culture here in the United States; one located in our inner cities, primarily.
The issue isn’t the guns. The guns aren’t sentient. They’re not cursed objects that take over a person’s soul and corrupt it with the power of Satan or something. They’re just tools that, unfortunately, some people are using to exert their power over others.
And some of those guns are held by people who have no interest in others holding power over them.
That’s why gun rights matter here, and it’s downright vile to pretend that’s not a thing, either in the United States, in Thailand, or anywhere else.
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