New, modern handguns being handed out free to police
A total of 55,150 new handguns are being distributed to officers in police stations nationwide to help compensate for a shortage of arms and deter violent crime.
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan on Thursday chaired a ceremony at the Royal Thai Police Sport Club at which newly purchased Sig Sauer P320 SP semi-automatic handguns were handed over to 22 police agencies to be distributed to every police stations for communal use by the police officers.
Prawit said the government acknowledged that crime was not only rising in Thailand, but also coming in diverse forms and with a more severe intensity. That makes it increasingly important to equip the police to fight criminals, he said.
The Royal Thai Police has long faced a shortage of guns, while many of those owned by police officers are old and out-moded, which increased the risk of officers being harmed or killed in action, the deputy PM acknowledged. This led the government to approve the police commissioner-general’s proposed plan to buy new guns.
All police stations in the country will be given 60 new guns to be shared among all officers.
“With these 55,150 new guns, I believe that the police performance in fighting crime and protecting people’s lives and belongings will be improved,” Prawit told the audience.
Speaking on behalf of police officers at the ceremony, Pol Senior Sgt-Major Tawee Nonkong said this was the first time that the government had presented guns to the police. The most common problem he had seen during his 10 years in the service was the lack of arms and ammunition, he said.
“We are very glad that we will have new guns to use in our mission to serve the people and protect society from crime,” Tawee said.
Last Saturday, the first lot of Sig Sauer P320 SP semi-automatic handguns were handed out to 2,500 police officers from around the country under a separate project, “welfare gun”, to provide more arms to the police.
Under the “welfare gun” project, the Royal Thai Police have ordered a total of 15,000 Sig Sauer P320 SP guns to sell to officers at Bt23,890, far below the market price, in order to ensure officers could own a quality weapon.
Guns from the welfare gun project cannot be resold and can only change hands through being passed along after the original owner has died.
Thai police officers have not previously been provided a gun free of charge. They were required to purchase a gun, which they often paid off through deductions from their salary.
