‘OUTDATED, IN NEED OF AN OVERHAUL’In October 2023, a 14-year-old armed with a modified blank-firing pistol killed two people at Bangkok’s Siam Paragon mall, leading the government to temporarily halt the issuance of new gun licences to the general public and target the loophole around blank-firing weapons.These weapons could be bought much more easily than conventional firearms because they were not regulated in the same way, even though some could be modified to fire live ammunition.Police also launched a nationwide “Gun Clearance Operation” against illegal, modified and blank guns, as well as online sellers.A year earlier, a former police officer…