to the professional gunman has relatively easy access to a gun. The existence of hired gunmen has long been acknowledged by the authorities. And yet there has been only a feeble attempt to suppress their number. Maybe most of us believe that the victims are of questionable background themselves. However, the recent murder of an Australian expatriate by hired gunmen
should wake us up to the reality that some victims are law-abiding people who are unfortunate enough to cause sufficient displeasure to certain influential persons. At the moment, the way the authorities deal with hired gunmen is to put those under suspicion on a watch-list and prosecute them after they kill someone. We should start questioning whether it is more effective to reduce the number of contract killings and other forms of gun violence by deterring a gunman than by pressing charges against him after he has committed a crime. Whereas a ban on the possession of guns by civilians is probably unwise because it will leave homeowners vulnerable to armed robbery, there is nothing wrong with revising the law to forbid people from carrying guns outside the home. Heavy penalties should also be imposed on those who violate the law. Judging from the effectiveness of Malaysian and Singaporean law, which impose very severe penalties in suppressing gun violence, we can see that Thai law must impose much heavier penalties in order to be an effective deterrent