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Guns'N'Quizzes



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item posted 14:25:22: 09-15-06 by kyle.

AP Reports public school teachers in Thailand have one of the country's deadliest jobs: 44 have been killed by Islamic insurgents since 2004, and an estimated 300 schools have been targets of arson or bomb attacks. In all, more than 1700 have been killed in sectarian violence in the three Muslim-majority provinces of the otherwise Buddhist nation.

The teachers are fighting back: Strict gun laws have been relaxed for educators, and the army is selling teachers .9mm Steyr pistols for a bargain price of 18,000 baht (US$480) — about 25 percent of the street price. Officials say teachers are targets because they're visible symbols of the government's authority, and because militants want secular schools closed (Islamic schools have so far been spared from violence).

"You'd never see a teacher anywhere else in Thailand carrying a gun," said Sanguan Jintarat, head of the Teachers' Association that oversees the 15,000 teachers in the villages and towns of the restive south. "But, we need them, or we'll die."

Sanguan estimates thousands of elementary and secondary educators are packing — many without permits — and hundreds are waitlisted for military sponsored gun training. Here's Aree Aatomphrasangsa, a 50-year-old elementary school principal – "She owns two shotguns but has a problem -- they don't fit in her purse":

"I want a smaller gun -- a revolver," said Aree, pulling out earplugs as she walked off the military shooting range with a tray of blanks. Her school is in the Sisakorn district of Narathiwat province, in an area dubbed the "Red Zone" -- a classification reserved for the most dangerous districts.

"A revolver is easy to carry and shoot," explained Aree, a slight, bespectacled woman with a ponytail. "When I drive, I can hold the steering wheel with one hand and use the other hand to shoot."


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