Thailand forum

I think the app you're referring to is probably one of the World Nomads ones? They do language apps for several countries and a lot of them seem to include the phrases for "dont shoot" and "those drugs aren't mine" - including the one for Japan which I feel is one of the safest countries I've been to. I'd just assumed it was WN's bit of fun, tongue-in-cheek addition!....

Don't worry; unless you're here during Songkran and it's in reference to a water pistol, you're extremely unlikey to need to use the phrase for "don't shoot" in Thailand and there are much more useful phrases you could spend your time learning.

Wow, Mac, I would never have thought that was the case, but a bit of googling confirmed that you are absolutely right. Gun crime in the US (per capita) is about 20 times that of the UK, where gun laws are much stricter. Overall murder rates get closer with the US at 3 times higher than UK.

Thailand though appears to have one of the highest rates of gun crime in the world. One statistic suggested 20,000 guncrime murders per annum. That's an extraordinary amount and much higher than in the US - both by per capita and by number.

Crime of this type against tourists is quite low, I assume - but still, its not one stat you see too much of in the tourist hype, is it !

Nokka
It's worth noting that Thailand has pretty strict gun laws and guns are wildly expensive here. But gun violence isn't really related to law, it's related to culture. Laws tend to reflect culture rather than the other way around. In Thailands case, the strict laws (relative to most US states), like many aspects of Thai society, are a reflection of how Thailand wishes to portray itself. Just as prostitution is illegal in Thailand. In the US, there is a cultural acceptance of an individuals right to use deadly force to protect oneself and ones property. This is not an ideal that is embraced in western Europe - neither now nor historically. Furthermore, in European history gun ownership was largely restricted to upper classes, law enforcement and the military. That was a governmental control mechanism. US gun ownership laws reflected exactly this concern starting with the inception of the country. We are slightly off topic now, but it's an observation worth noting, as most people believe the way to modify social behavior is through law, but the reality is that that is a tool which can function only in certain environments and usually requires either gross coercion or popular consent.