Gun dealers in Bangkok are changing businesses, with some firearms shops turning into bakeries as regulations limit their ability to import guns. Suchart and Friends Gun in the city’s old quarter now displays sourdough bread in the former gun case, after pistols and rifles were previously sold there.
Both outlets link the shift to Thailand’s firearm import restrictions. Since a 2023 shooting at a Bangkok mall, Thai firearm shops have been prohibited from importing firearms, part of a wider pattern of tighter controls following mass-casualty incidents, including attacks at a school and a childcare centre. While one outlet places the shop’s transformation in the broader context of Thailand’s high levels of private gun ownership and recurring tragedies, the other focuses more directly on how some dealers pivot to survive the reduced market for firearms imports. In both accounts, the store’s bread-and-bakery transition reflects the immediate business impact of the ban.
