Saiga is a Russian company which manufactures sporting rifles. They do not manufacture SKS rifles which are military surplus rifles from COMBLOC nations circa 1950s-1960s
The Saiga happens to use the same ammo as the SKS but unlike the SKS has a detachable magazine. Here's a link to the exporter's web site: http://www.eaacorp.com/firearms/saiga/rifles/saiga100t.shtml
The gun grabbers are trying very hard to make this an assault weapon when in fact it is a sporting rifle.
I can't read the pdf file, but am confused a bit. Is this from the article :
The rifle was a Saiga SKS 7.62 X 39 Caliber
That sounds like it is a SKS to me. The headline says it's not.
A Clear Channel News reporter actually used the words "automatic rifle" in a news report about this story.
Spin Spin Spin
Hate to break it to you but the SKS originally had a fixed magazine but it can be retrofitted with a detachable magazine.
I checked out your link. The Saiga looks like an SKS with some cosmetic changes.
Doesn't really matter now does it. Six people are dead because some jackass snapped and now the media is going to say all guns are bad anyways, not just assault weapons.
The 2nd Amendment wasn't intended to protect hunting rifles. It was intended to protect assault weapons.
BTTT
To gun grabbers an assault rifle is a sporting rifle. Also, any high powered rifle that will penetrate a bullet proof vest(all of them) is a "cop killer" rifle that should be banned. I could go on about how they want to ban guns based on cosmetic features, but there's no point in repeating the ignorance.
With the various comments about the Hmong, seems like a good point to introduce a few background details.
http://www.leadertelegram.com/specialreports/series/storydetail.asp?series=Hmong&theme=History&offset=0&offset2=0
Who are the Hmong?
By Dan Holtz
Leader-Telegram Staff
About 12 million Hmong people live in the world today, the majority in China’s southern provinces. The Hmong in America trace their Chinese ancestry back thousands of years, although their recent history is rooted in Laos, where they settled around a vast plateau called the Plain of Jars.
Their name for themselves, Hmong, has been translated as “free people.”
Farming heritage and clans
The Hmong have an agricultural history. The Hmong scattered atop Laotian mountains in numerous small, self-sufficient villages. They bound themselves to one another through devotion to family.
At birth, a child became a member of the clan of his or her father. Extended family members within a clan, no matter how distant, were always welcomed to the home. Tradition prohibited members of the same clan from marrying. Parents and local clan leaders sometimes arranged marriages to strengthen political alliances between families.
Average villages ranged in size from 10 to 20 families. Hmong farming methods required many hands, so families tended to be large.
The Hmong celebrated the harvest festival -- or the New Year -- around the full moon in December. Families and relatives from distant villages gathered for three days of eating, games, music and courting.
The Secret War
From 1961 to 1975, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency actively recruited Hmong highlanders to fight a “secret war” in Laos, which was in direct violation of the 1962 Geneva Accords.
Hmong soldiers blocked supply lines headed for South Vietnam, rescued downed American pilots and served as the primary “anti-communist” force in Laos.
The multi-million-dollar operation was unreported in the American media until 1969.
CIA officers promised their Hmong allies the United States would provide them with arms and supplies. The officers also vowed that America would take care of the Hmong in victory or defeat.
This American promise did not constitute a formal treaty and never was recorded on paper. But years later it would be recalled by many of the Hmong who fled Laos as a result of the war.
Fleeing at war’s end
The American withdrawal from Southeast Asia in 1975 created upheaval in the region. Cut off from American arms and supplies, the Hmong secret army disbanded. In May 1975, its leaders and their followers were airlifted to Thailand. Thousands followed on foot while others remained in Laos to rebuild their homes and villages.
From 1975 through 1992, more than 100,000 Hmong people crossed into Thailand to escape retribution from the communist government. About 200,000 remained in Laos.
After crossing the Mekong River into Thailand, the Hmong refugees gathered in overcrowded camps with limited food and water. Two or three families often shared a 10-foot by 10-foot bamboo hut in the camps. The families slept in shifts. The overcrowded conditions led to disease, and many refugees died from malaria.
Finding a new home
Most refugees at the camps viewed Thailand as temporary quarters. Once the political climate stabilized in the region, many believed they would return to Laos.
With stabilization not occurring, the Hmong accepted the idea of relocating. The majority of the more than 100,000 refugees chose the United States.
In May 1975, Congress passed the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, exempting refugees from normal immigration restrictions.
More than 20,000 Hmong refugees moved to the United States from 1975 to 1979, and the number exceeded 110,000 by 1993.
Focusing on the Midwest
Individuals, churches and volunteer agencies sponsored the first group of Hmong refugees to the United States. The geographical locations of the sponsoring groups accounted, in part, for the concentration of Hmong refugees in select U.S. cities and states.
Once refugees established themselves in America, they often became the sponsors for relatives still living in the Thailand camps.
Initially, the U.S. government provided financial assistance to Hmong refugees through the Refugee Cash Assistance Program. The federal government also provided funds for language and job training and reimbursed states for their contributions to Aid to Families With Dependent Children, Supplementary Security Insurance, food stamps and Medicaid.
By 1980, younger Hmong refugees, who often were fluent in English, began staffing Mutual Assistance Associations -- self-help organizations funded by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement.
In Minnesota and Wisconsin, church sponsorship and secondary migration produced significant Hmong populations in various communities. The 2000 Census indicated the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, with 40,707 Hmong residents, has the largest Hmong population in the country. The census also showed that Wisconsin’s largest Hmong populations are in these metropolitan areas: Milwaukee (8,078), Appleton/Oshkosh (4,741), Wausau (4,453), Green Bay (2,957), Sheboygan (2,706), La Crosse (2,285), Madison (2,235) and Eau Claire (1,920).
The U.S. Census Bureau counted about 170,000 Hmong people in the United States in 2000, with the largest populations in California (65,095), Minnesota (41,800) and Wisconsin (33,791). Groups that assist the Hmong suggest those figures represent significant undercounts.
Sources include the Hmong Cultural Center in St. Paul and the Chippewa Valley Museum in Eau Claire. A major source was “Hmong in America: Journey From a Secret War,” published by the Chippewa Valley Museum Press.
Which is a problem with this story too. The original stories all talked about a 20rd magazine. I dont believe there is such a creature as a 20rd Saiga 7.62x39 magazine, just 10 and 30rd, meaning either he reloaded a fresh mag or the 20rd mag aspect of the story is false. I saw the previous post suggesting that it takes some work to modify and AK mag, various sites on the web say its "an easy mod". Either way, while Im not claiming to be an AK expert, I dont believe there is a 20rd AK mag to be modified. This brings us back to questioning the whole mag issue...
Anyone who seriously believes the quisling mediots care about the truth is incredibly misinformed, stupid, or [woefully] both.
"When it comes to printing the truth or legend, print the legend." {paraphrased}
...The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.