Gun control lobby hit with fact-check over misleading SKS claims
According to the X fact-check, the SKS is legal because it “unambiguously meets the definition of a legal firearm” under the Firearms Act.
A prominent gun control lobby was hit with an X fact-check Wednesday after falsely claiming SKS variants are “prohibited” firearms.
“A known gap in Canada’s gun laws is costing lives,” began PolySeSouvient. “The SKS loophole - for a semi-automatic firearm originally designed for military use - is no longer defensible… modern SKS variants share key characteristics with firearms that are already prohibited.”
According to the fact-check, the SKS is legal because it “unambiguously meets the definition of a legal firearm” under the Firearms Act. “The SKS meets the legislated definition and always has. Its legality is not a loophole.”
The SKS is a semi-automatic rifle developed in the 1950s in the Soviet Union and later produced in countries such as China and the former Yugoslavia. Following the collapse of the USSR, surplus rifles were sold internationally, including to Canada.
Experts say it remains widely owned by legal gun owners and is also commonly used by Indigenous hunters.
