I'll give you a choice, Twitter: I can either talk about Evangeline Lilly, or the SKS rifle she's holding here.

Just kidding! I have nothing to say about Evangeline Lilly. This is the SKS thread.

The SKS is in the news because it's the rifle used in the 2018 Fredericton mass shooting.

It's not on the list of firearms banned under the government's new regulation. It's an interesting example of the problems we run into in coming up with gun laws. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/matthew-vincent-raymond-criminal-trial-1.5720459

The SKS is a Russian semi-automatic rifle with a fixed, 10-round magazine, chambered in 7.62 x39 mm - the same round used in the original AK-47.

It was developed out of the experience of WWII and entered service in 1945. It's essentially a precursor to the assault rifle.

During WWII, armies sought to replace heavy bolt-action rifles (Sayid's Mosin-Nagant here) with lighter weapons firing lighter ammo, because they discovered that most infantry fighting was at 200 yards or less.

The SKS is a stop-gap solution en route to true assault rifles.

Unlike the first true assault rifles (German StG-43, Russian AK-47), the SKS is semi-automatic only, and has a fixed magazine which is reloaded by means of stripper clips.

This is the obvious rationale for excluding it from the new regulation: it's not a modern design.

It is, however, extremely common in Canada, and inexpensive -- more so than in the US, where import controls drove up prices and limited availability.

As I mentioned yesterday, my SKS cost me $169; nowadays, they run about $300. Some retailers sell them by the crate.

The reason they're so common (and available by the crate) is that zillions were made during the Cold War, not only by Russia but also by China, Yugoslavia, etc.

And these obsolete war stocks were later dumped on the civilian market.

So should they be banned in Canada? Good question.

The case for regulation rests on their ubiquity & semi-automatic operation. The case against is that such a ban would cast a very wide net that would ban traditional semi-auto hunting rifles with fixed mags also.

In favour of including these rifles in any regulatory scheme aimed at "assault weapons" is the fact they're so cheap: this eliminates an obvious barrier to a potential shooter getting his mitts on a gun. They're also available almost everywhere.

They're semi-automatic, ammunition is inexpensive, and they reload *relatively* quickly by means of stripper clips.

Although the 10-round mag is limited to 5 in Canada, it's easily modified back to a 10-round mag. I could do mine with a pair of pliers.

Also, that 10-round fixed magazine can become a 20-round interchangeable box magazine by making simple modifications to the rifle, using common hand tools.

All these are SKS rifles (note that distinctive bolt).

(One solution to that problem, if regulations were aimed purely at rifles with interchangeable mags, would be to make the aftermarket stocks and mags used in these conversions into prohibited devices, while leaving the basic rifle unaffected.)

The chief advantage of modern designs lies in the interchangeable mag. These mags make carrying a large amount of ammo more convenient, and facilitate quick reloading.

Reloading by stripper clips is slower, and reloading when you still have a round or two left in the mag is much slower. (The SKS has no hold-open device for the bolt; the bolt only locks open when the mag is empty.)

That's why rifles like the SKS disappeared.

The big problems in regulating the SKS would be that

(a) there are a lot of rifles out there
(b) it's functionally the same as any number of semi-auto hunting rifles, so you probably ban them, too, and
(c) that's even *more* guns to worry about

The popular answer for a lot of people is just to cut the Gordian knot and ban all the semi-autos, but this is politically far more difficult, and far more expensive.

Of course, it bears pointing out that this kind of situation can be prevented by ... preventing the dumping of large numbers of military surplus rifles on the civvie market in the first place.

Anyway, that's the SKS thread.

And for the benefit of all those who are likely to yell at me without reading this far ... I haven't actually said that anything *should* be banned. Thanks for not reading!