n October 2022, a disgruntled former police officer walked into a nursery school in the remote northeast of Thailand and killed 23 children and two teachers, most of them shot point-blank with a pistol. The massacre left a total of 36 dead, ranking as the deadliest in Thai history and one of the worst in the world. The pistol the killer used – a Sig Sauer P365 — was manufactured more than 8,000 miles away in a factory in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, part of a deluge of American-made weapons that are being exported around the world and driving a surge in violent crimes. According to one estimate, nearly 40 percent of guns recovered at crime scenes outside North America are traced to legal U.S. sales. Today, Thailand is the single largest importer of semi-automatic weapons made in the U.S. It’s estimated that the country has more than 10 million guns in circulation – or about one for every seven people – by far the most of any Southeast Asian nation. Tragically, the influx in weapons has coincided with an increase in US-style mass shootings in the Land of Smiles – a phenomenon that Thais blame on American culture as much as the guns themselves.

In rural Nong Bua Lamphu province, we meet with families of the children killed in the massacre as they fight for justice and accountability. In the hyper-modern capital, Bangkok, survivors of a recent teenage mall shooting revisit their experience, a frightening portent for the future. All testimonies point to a common theme: “We never thought it would happen here.” For local authorities, a significant problem leading to this phenomenon is how easy it has become to purchase a gun in the country, despite strict laws enacted to exert control. “There is an overwhelming amount of guns in the black market,” says Colonel Wiwat Jitsopakul from the kingdom’s Central Investigation Bureau. “For the past 3 to 4 years, we realized that guns have been spreading all over the country, mainly through online platforms and social media pages”.

As Thailand struggles to get a handle on a spree of mass shootings, Big Story’s senior correspondent Jason Motlagh talks to the survivors and the experts trying to grapple with its consequences.