Homicide rate in Thailand : Is violence on the rise since the 2006 coup? - Asian Correspondent

Some blame the rise in gun crime on political instability that has gripped Thailand since a 2006 coup that removed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Unrest culminated in a two-month stand-off in 2010 between government troops and "red shirt" protesters backing Thaksin and clashes that killed 91 people.

Others say that the seeming impunity enjoyed by the wealthy has prompted some to take the law into their own hands.

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All this underscores a growing sense of lawlessness since the 2006 coup. Gun crime in Bangkok has more than doubled and the new police chief, described by a deputy prime minister as a "thug-catching type", has vowed to take weapons off the streets.

Thailand has the highest gun murder rate in Asia, according to www.gunpolicy.org, a site hosted by the University of Sydney's School of Public Health in Australia.

There were 5.3 murders by firearms per 100,000 people in Thailand in 2011, compared to 0.2 in the Philippines, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported.

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"Guns are coming through all of Thailand's borders to the north, east and west of the country," said Supisan Pakdinarunat, Commander of Thailand's Crime Suppression Division.