FarangFarang Posted January 2, 2012 Report Share Posted January 2, 2012 Interesting stat that I was a little surprised by since you hear so much about traffic fatalities and so little about firearm deaths but supposedly Thailand ranks #3 in the world in terms of death by firearms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Stramash Posted January 2, 2012 Report Share Posted January 2, 2012 Interesting stat that I was a little surprised by since you hear so much about traffic fatalities and so little about firearm deaths but supposedly Thailand ranks #3 in the world in terms of death by firearms. I have real doubts (as many of the posters do) as to the reliability of those figures. Looking over the murder rates for Thailand (all murders) the figure seems to vary between about 7 and 8.7 per 100,000 people. Given these figures are from 2002, and Thailand's population that year was around 64.3 million, even taking the murder rate at its highest (8.7) gives total murders of under 6,000. So how the hell do they work out over 20,000 murders? This seems to be a common mistake on this page - note the Slovakia comments made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Stramash Posted January 2, 2012 Report Share Posted January 2, 2012 addendum; the murder rate for Thailand in 2002 was 7.0 per 100,000 (source - http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/homicide.html) giving an approximate total murder figure of around 4,500. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 FarangFarang Posted January 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2012 Yeah, it seemed a little off. On the other hand, the stats you posted from the UN are from where? Thailand is still a place where a buy with both arms bound behind his back and a plastic bag over his head is declared a suicide. :-) It seems the numbers are what is reported by law enforcement and what is listed as a cause of death. Not sure you can get very accurate numbers using those two sources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Stramash Posted January 2, 2012 Report Share Posted January 2, 2012 Yeah, it seemed a little off.On the other hand, the stats you posted from the UN are from where? Thailand is still a place where a buy with both arms bound behind his back and a plastic bag over his head is declared a suicide. :-) It seems the numbers are what is reported by law enforcement and what is listed as a cause of death. Not sure you can get very accurate numbers using those two sources. Think the main issue is the link you posted is severely questioned for a number of countries. No doubt there are undeclared murders for many countries and Thailand will be no different (thinking of Toxin's crack down on drug dealers specifically here). But even with expected discrepancies, the figure they post is 400% greater than my approximation. Strange that nationmaster also claims their source as UN surveys though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 funky_house Posted January 2, 2012 Report Share Posted January 2, 2012 Funnily enough, I was reading an article about buying guns in Thailand today on Thaivisa: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/523099-bangkok-gun-shops-whats-inside-and-why-tourists-cant-buy/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 FarangFarang Posted January 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2012 Funnily enough, I was reading an article about buying guns in Thailand today on Thaivisa: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/523099-bangkok-gun-shops-whats-inside-and-why-tourists-cant-buy/ Caught that one too. I thought it was funny that they singled out tourists as not being able to buy a gun. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Stramash Posted January 3, 2012 Report Share Posted January 3, 2012 Would be interesting to know the extent of the illegal gun market. Given the history of war etc in the surrounding countries, and the reputation of corruption within Thailand itself, I wonder how many guns are on the streets that have no documentation whatsoever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 FarangFarang Posted January 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2012 Would be interesting to know the extent of the illegal gun market. Given the history of war etc in the surrounding countries, and the reputation of corruption within Thailand itself, I wonder how many guns are on the streets that have no documentation whatsoever. If the red shirt protests were any indication it seems that handguns, rifles, and grenade launchers are pretty easy to come by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Stramash Posted January 3, 2012 Report Share Posted January 3, 2012 If the red shirt protests were any indication it seems that handguns, rifles, and grenade launchers are pretty easy to come by. Just what I was thinking. And I also wonder just how diligent the Thai police are in checking on firearms certificates? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 PiAnt Posted January 3, 2012 Report Share Posted January 3, 2012 Quite. However, what the statistics don't tell you is that, with the price of bullets so high and the state of the economy, guns are being used as handy things to club people to death with. *insert eyeroll somewhere around here* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 PiAnt Posted January 3, 2012 Report Share Posted January 3, 2012 Oh. My signature has reappeared. And I thought some git had had off with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 CiaranM Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 And I also wonder just how diligent the Thai police are in checking on firearms certificates? do u really need to wonder ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Stramash Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 do u really need to wonder ??? Twas a rhetorical question dear boy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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FarangFarang
Interesting stat that I was a little surprised by since you hear so much about traffic fatalities and so little about firearm deaths but supposedly Thailand ranks #3 in the world in terms of death by firearms.
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