Thailand has a gun problem - 10 million of them - BBC News

Recent shootings have highlighted the country's troubled relationship with guns, with laws doing little to curb the violence.

Image source, ReutersImage caption, Chalong Riewrang told reporters he had "not intended to shoot his friend"

Just three days after a 14-year-old opened fire at his school, killing eight people before shooting himself, another incident in the same province illustrated even more starkly Thailand's troubled relationship with guns.

Chalong Riewrang, a 71-year-old former politician, went into the local administration office to discuss a large sum of money he says he was owed by the administration chief, Thongchai Yenprasert, a man he called his friend.

The conversation ended abruptly with Chalong pulling out a gun and firing four shots through the window of Thongchai's car, hitting him and his driver. Thongchai later died from his wounds.

Chalong then left the scene, and phoned a startled journalist he knew who was in the middle of a live broadcast on YouTube, to tell her what had happened.