Gun control group calls for end to sales of SKS rifles after Montreal shooting

Prime Minister Mark Carney faced questions amid renewed calls to ban SKS rifle sales after the deadly shooting in Montreal. Annie Bergeron-Oliver has more.

A leading gun control advocacy group is calling on the federal government to end new sales of SKS rifles, days after days after three people were killed in a shooting in Montreal, including the shooter.

Montreal police have not said what kind of gun was used in Monday’s shooting but photographs circulated on social media show what appears to be a long gun lying on the ground at the scene. Experts believe the weapon is likely a semi-automatic Soviet-era rifle known as an SKS.

“It’s not a very clear photo, it’s kind of fuzzy, but the SKS has a very distinctive feature,” said AJ Somerset, author of the book Arms: The Culture and Credo of the Gun.

“It has an integral bayonet that folds underneath the barrel and you can see, on the rifle in the picture, what appears to be that integral bayonet. So, for that reason, I’d say it is likely an SKS,” Somerset said.

The SKS, semi-automatic rifle dates back to the Soviet Union in the 1950s although other countries including China and Yugoslavia (a former country in the Balkans) also manufactured the SKS. Experts say when the Soviet Union collapsed, many former Soviet nations sold off their stocks of SKS rifles to consumers in many countries including Canada. Experts say the rifle is very popular among legal gun owners in Canada and among Indigenous hunters.

“One time in Canada, we are talking probably over 10 years ago, you could buy these things by the crate,” Somerset said. “They were quite inexpensive, I bought one for $160 and consequentially, all kinds of people bought them.”

Since 2020, the federal government has introduced a ban on about 2,500 firearms. The SKS is not one of them.

Following Monday’s shooting, the prominent gun control advocacy group PolySeSouvient wants to see the federal government implement an immediate ban on new sales of the SKS rifle.

The advocacy group says the SKS has been linked to a number of shootings and police killings over the years, including in Canada. They also say it is a firearm commonly seized by police forces in Canada.

“End the sale of new SKSs,” said Heidi Rathjen of PolySeSouvient. “That’s not taking anything away from anybody, that’s just not allowing the problem to get even worse and it will also prevent gun owners who are participating in the buyback program from using taxpayer money to buy a new assault weapon.”

Rathjen, who was a student at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique when a massacre occurred in 1989 and has since become an advocate for stricter gun control, believes the measure would help.

She says that while talking about the mental health of people who commit mass murders is important, so is making it more difficult for potential mass shooters to access weapons.

“We recognize that many factors contribute to mass shootings,” she said. “But that doesn’t take away from the fact that if perpetrators do not have access to the means to the tools with which they can easily pull of the trigger, kill people at a distance rapidly and effectively in a matter of seconds, that I mean, that is the weakest link in the chain of events leading up to a mass casualty event.”

Asked whether she believes the government will act on their recommendations, Rathjen said more consultations are not the answer.

“We need prevention, and part of that prevention is not allowing easy legal access to weapons design to cause mass casualties,” she said.

Tracey Wilson, the vice-president of public relations for the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights, said targeting the rifle itself is not the right approach since any firearm could have been used to commit this tragedy.

“PolySeSouvient wastes no time seizing the opportunity this tragedy presents for their long-held and very public position on the SKS,” she said in a statement.

“Until we can have a mature conversation about what drives someone to this type of extremism, we will continue to have these unproductive debates at the expense of the victims and their families.”

When it comes to cracking down on the SKS, Somerset says there will always be another rifle involved in shootings.

“I don’t think that banning this rifle is going to solve the problem,” he said. “The approach that we have been taking in this country of banning named models of rifles, often in response to high-profile shootings, is simply not a good approach to solving our problems.”

What is the federal government saying?

Ottawa says it is carrying out a broad review of Canada’s firearms classification regime that will include consultations with Indigenous communities on the SKS.

“We will await confirmation from the SVPM (Service de police de la Ville de Montréal) on the firearm that was used in this tragedy. The federal government has been clear in its commitment to gun control,” said David Taylor, the director of communications for the minister of public safety.

“Part of that commitment is launching a comprehensive review of the firearms classification regime,” he added.

As part of that review, the minister’s office says it will look at the legal framework for firearms, devices, magazines and ammunition with the goal of strengthening and modernizing the system.

“As well, we will be conducting a broad and distinctions-based Indigenous consultations on the SKS to inform any potential future changes to improve the safety of firearms use in Canada.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney was asked whether he would consider banning the SKS. He said Ottawa is carrying out a review of its firearm classifications and would not comment directly on the idea of a ban on SKS.

“We’re hearing from subject matter experts, such as the RCMP. They will advise us on which firearms we should look to ban,” Carney said in French. “That’s all I have to say on the matter for now.”

Carney added that it is not up to him to confirm details of the investigation, however, he received a new briefing on it Thursday morning.

“I’m receiving regular updates on the procedures of that, it is not for me to confirm specific aspects of that investigation. I will leave that to the relevant authorities,” he told reporters Thursday morning.

Asked a similar question, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said it’s time to question whether the government’s gun control policies are working.

“I think now is the time to judge (if) the result, has worked,” he said. “Gun crime is up 50 per cent since they promised they were going to ban these guns. We have to ask ourselves, have these bans on hunters and farmers and licensed sports shooters stopped mass shootings. These are the questions we have to ask.”