Living here in the south. Tourists will be safe. The protestors in Bangkok are a cross section of society (not the paid troublemakers that the former PM Taksin used). Thais have had a long road to democracy and have suffered greatly under the hands of "security forces" in the past, especially '72,'75 and '91. Such forces were usually loyal to particular factions. These protests seem to be a legitimate show of disapproval of the corruption that is rife. As for the weapons siezed at parliament house, that is a tough one. Could have been a particularly hard edge faction of or possibly planted by the police to justify force. Time will tell.