Take a break and park your gun

THALANG: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) is building a 2-million-baht rest area at the Tah Chat Chai police checkpoint on Route 402 that will include a weapons depository. The first-of-its-kind service will allow visitors to store registered firearms with police while they are on the island, in line with a government ban on carrying firearms on the island. The ban, which went into effect on July 1 and is part of the government’s “War on Dark Influences”, has also been applied to other provinces and localities that rely heavily on tourism – including Pattaya and Chiang Rai. The ban applies even to off-duty government officers. Pol Lt Col Jakrit Srisuwan, Deputy Superintendent of Tah Chat Chai Police Station, told the Gazette yesterday that the the rest area would also include facilities more normally associated with roadside rest areas, such as toilets, a tourist information desk, maps and drinking water. He added that it will be staffed with “courteous and helpful personnel”. Work is already underway and the rest area may be ready to open as early as next month, possibly even before the current amnesty for illegal guns expires on December 15. The weapons depository will comprise a row of safe deposit boxes, each with two locks. One key will be kept by the police on duty while the depositor will keep the other, thereby ensuring that both must be present for deposited weapons to be collected. Col Jakrit added that a registration book would add extra security against weapons being stolen.