BANGKOK – Thailand plans to offer an amnesty for gun owners who have not registered their firearms following 2022’s mass shooting that left about two dozen pre-schoolers dead.

The Cabinet cleared a proposal that will allow owners of unregistered firearms to have their weapons officially recorded within 180 days without charges, government spokesman Ratchada Thanadirek said on Wednesday.

The Bill also allows owners to hand over unlawful ammunition to the authorities within the same period without penalty, said Ms Ratchada.

The proposed legislation, once approved, will boost the government’s capacity to tighten the guardrails on gun ownership and better monitor the movement of firearms going into Thailand, she said.

The South-east Asian nation is tightening rules on guns after a former policeman used an automatic weapon in a mass shooting incident in north-eastern Thailand 2022, killing at least 36 people, mostly children. BLOOMBERG