A 14-year-old killed eight people in Thailand with a legally registered handgun. The government has now promised twice to check who owns guns. It still hasn't.

A 12-year-old girl has died of her wounds, bringing to at least eight the number of people killed by a 14-year-old boy outside Bangkok on Friday.

He shot his two grandparents at their home in Bang Bua Thong, then went to Debsirin Nonthaburi School and killed five staff before taking his own life.

Sixteen people remain in hospital, seven of them critically. Most of the wounded are aged between 12 and 14.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the attack was premeditated and that the boy had been carrying "lots of pressure and tension". He said the shooter had more than 30 rounds left when he died.

The gun was a handgun legally registered to his grandfather.

Within hours Mr Anutin pledged a new firearms law. It would restrict who can carry a gun in public, allowing only government officials on duty. It does not touch what sits in a drawer at home.

He has done this before.

In October 2023, a 14-year-old with a modified blank pistol killed three people at the Siam Paragon mall in Bangkok. Mr Anutin was interior minister. He suspended import and trading permits, banned new personal gun licences for a year, suspended public carry permits and barred under-20s from shooting ranges.

Longer term, he proposed a medical certificate assessing the mental health of gun owners, and expiry dates on licences. Neither exists.

A year earlier a sacked police officer killed 37 people at a childcare centre in Nong Bua Lamphu, 24 of them children. The prime minister of the day ordered a crackdown within days. His cabinet floated psychological screening and tighter background checks.

What became policy was an amnesty: 180 days for owners of unregistered guns to record them with the state without charge.

The screening never came. The background checks never came. Registration did.

Registration tells the state a gun exists. It does not say where it is kept, whether it is locked, or who else in the house can reach it.

This gun was registered. It was in a home with a 14-year-old. Nothing about that broke a rule.

An estimated 10.3 million firearms are in civilian hands in Thailand. About 6.2 million are registered.

The state also sells them. A welfare scheme launched in 2009 lets civil servants and officials buy firearms at a 30 to 40 per cent discount, and hundreds of thousands have been distributed. Police proposed freezing it after the nursery attack. It was not frozen. The officer who carried out that attack had bought his gun through the scheme.

Mourners left flowers at the school gate on Saturday. Classes are suspended until Friday.

UNICEF called for better mental health services for children, saying the boy's age raised "particularly difficult questions for us as a society".

The question about the gun has already been asked, twice.

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