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Sutipatt Sudhisanronakorn, a gun enthusiast who works as a flight attendant, fires at a target with a military assault rife while dressed as a US Navy Seal commando at a shooting range outside Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Tibor Krausz

Published: 5:15am, 20 May 2020Updated: 3:58pm, 20 May 2020

At a grassy open-air shooting range outside Bangkok, Sutipatt Sudhisanronakorn and Apichai Karnjanakantika are about to storm an imaginary terrorist stronghold.

Sutipatt is a flight attendant for a Thai airline and Apichai runs an animal feed business. Right now, though, the young Thai men resemble hardened US Navy Seal commandos.

Dressed in camouflage combat outfits, they are crouching behind a training barricade, itching for some action with their guns at the ready. Their uniforms are Chinese-made knock-offs, complete with dummy grenades, and the carrier vests are fortified not with bulletproof plates but flimsy foam. Yet the two firearm enthusiasts’ assault rifles and handguns are real military-style weapons with live bullets.

“You can even buy original Seal uniforms online with sweat stains from the soldiers who wore them,” Sutipatt, 27, says. “I like dressing up to get into the mood for shooting with my guns.”

Sutipatt Sudhisanronakorn (right) and Apichai Karnjanakantika (left) watch a replay of their military-style training session. Both are kitted out in Chinese-made knock-off US military uniforms. Photo: Tibor Krausz

Apichai and Sutipatt belong to a group of like-minded gun enthusiasts in their 20s and 30s who have come to this outdoor shooting range on a recent Friday for a day of military role-play with high-powered weaponry.

With their arsenal of firearms and boxes of ammunition laid out on aluminium tables, they look like a mini-militia. Their US Army-style outfits, forbidding firepower and high jinks make them stand out at the range, where other hobbyists, wearing T-shirts and jeans, are firing handguns and rifles at adjacent shooting galleries.