Posted Nov. 28, 2004
SKS rifle not rare, say gun experts
Alleged firearm in slayings not an ‘assault weapon’
By Steve Wideman
Post-Crescent staff writer
The gun allegedly used to kill six Wisconsin hunters is a type commonly used to hunt deer and should not be called an assault weapon, say local hunters and gun enthusiasts.
Authorities say that Chai Vang, 36, of St. Paul, Minn., shot eight people last Sunday, killing six, following a confrontation over a deer stand on private property in Sawyer County.
Vang, who claims he shot the hunters after they made racial slurs and shot at him, remained in the Sawyer County Jail on Saturday under a $2.5 million bond.
He is expected to be formally charged Monday.
When Vang was arrested by a state Department of Natural Resources warden, he allegedly was carrying an empty Russian-built Saiga 7.62 mm, SKS semiautomatic rifle.
The SKS, a medium-powered carbine usually equipped with a 10-round magazine, is cheap, dependable and commonly used for deer hunting, said Bill Kordus of Menasha, a state certified hunting education instructor and former president of the Twin City Rod and Gun Club.
“It’s the most common deer-hunting rifle out there. You can buy them for $100. There are millions of them,” Kordus said.
Kordus said the SKS did not fall under the nation’s recently expired ban on the sale of assault weapons. And he said it’s incorrect to label the hunting version of an SKS an assault weapon.
“A gun is considered a firearm and it is a tool used to hunt,” he said. “A weapon is anything used to kill or maim another human being.”
Mike Young, Outagamie County DNR warden, said he owns two SKS rifles.
“I place responsibility (for the Sawyer County shootings) on the hunter, not the gun,” he said.
Young said it is common for deer rifles to hold six or seven rounds and be semiautomatic. Vang allegedly had a 20-round magazine.
“They (SKS) come with a 10-round clip. You load it by inserting the cartridges into the chamber. But you can pull a pin out and put in a 20- or 30-round magazine,” Young said.
Young compared the SKS to a .30-30 rifle, which is light and has less recoil than more powerful deer rifles.
“The .30-30 is a rifle most people give their kids,” he said.
Don Kemps, a member of the Northeast Wisconsin High-Powered Rifle League, said the fact Vang had a high-capacity magazine “is really immaterial for what he did.
“I wouldn’t consider it a long-range weapon. I’ve never seen anyone use it in competition,” Kemps said.
The SKS, like all semiautomatic guns, fires a round each time the trigger is pulled. Unlike bolt actions or pump guns, a semiautomatic automatically reloads another shell in the firing chamber, but does not fire it.
Kordus said semi-automatic guns have been used by Wisconsin hunters for decades.
“Semiautomatic shotguns have been popular with duck hunters since the 1950s,” he said.
He said owning a fully automatic gun requires an extensive federal criminal background check, with ownership permits that cost about $200 annually.
Kordus said the sturdiness of the SKS is one reason so many U.S. troops had such a difficult time in Vietnam.
“The U.S. guns just weren’t dependable, but the SKS, you could drop in a mud puddle and it would still shoot,” he said. “The SKS is a crude firearm that is not really accurate at long range, but is dependable as hell.”
