Following the deadly attack at a mall in Thailand, an attempted mass shooting, it’s unsurprising that officials there want to at least be seen doing something.

After all, it’s the third such shooting since 2020–so much for that “uniquely American problem” thing, huh?–and officials have to Do Something.

Of course, they’ve done something after each shooting and, well, it clearly didn’t accomplish all that much.

This time isn’t shaping up to be any different, either.

The government is suspending the issuance of permits for importing and trading firearms, real and imitation, as one of seven short-term measures to improve gun control, Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakulannounced on Thursday.

The measures are a response to public concern following the shooting on Tuesday at a Bangkok shopping mall, where a teenager armed with a blank gun that had been modified killed two people and wounded five others.

The short-term measures were agreed on during a meeting that involved agencies including the Royal Thai Police, Customs Department, Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DES) and Ministry of Public Health at Government House on Thursday.

Mr Anutin, who is also a deputy prime minister, said earlier that all existing gun control laws would be reviewed and amended as necessary to ensure public safety. Only authorised individuals should be to carry guns in public, he added.

So, in order to facilitate this, they’re going to basically make it impossible for anyone to lawfully buy a firearm or even a replica of one.

Let’s remember that the shooter here was a 14-year-old kid who still found a way to obtain a firearm. It’s unknown if he modified the blank-firing replica himself or got it from someone else, but if he did get it from another person, do we really think the next would-be killer wouldn’t be able to do the same thing?

I hate to break it to the nation of Thailand, but this is also the era of the 3D printer. Gun control, as a concept, is completely and totally dead. So long as people can print things, they can print guns. You simply cannot stop those who want a gun from getting one.

What Thailand is doing, though, is making it impossible for those who want to follow the law to get one, even something that just looks like a gun.

Yet Thailand isn’t alone in this.

Over and over again, this is the automatic reaction of lawmakers and public officials. They cannot stand the idea that people might be able to have a gun if anyone anywhere might possibly do something with one. It doesn’t matter how the bad guy gets a gun. It doesn’t matter if criminals or dangerous people will still have firearms.

All that matters is being seen as Doing Something.

Thailand is no different than anywhere else except for the United States. Our leadership will often talk the same game, mind you, but the Second Amendment tends to keep them from pushing things too far and is now leading to a lot of past stuff being overturned.

And thank God for that.