While the RCMP has avoided releasing any information about the weapons used in the February 10 shooting, a court filing by the FBI has revealed more than was previously known.
According to Special Agent Joseph Rico, who interviewed James Cody Bryant, the shooter claimed to have stolen “guns and ammunition” from the family’s gun safe and was hiding them “in preparation for a mass shooting.”
When discussing the types of guns and accessories possessed, Rico says Bryant was told there was a 3D printed foregrip, firearm magazines, and a “switch” for an SKS.
The SKS—or Samozaryadny karabin Simonova—is a Russian semi-automatic rifle, first produced in the Soviet Union in the 1940s and is still in production today, by various nations, including China.
SKS guns are legal in Canada. Indeed, they are popular hunting and sporting rifles, often rebuilt with aftermarket stocks (that’s the part of the gun that holds the receiver, action and barrel in place, allowing the user to shoulder, aim and control the weapon).
The SKS has a ten round magazine, though in Canada, they are limited (with a pin) to five rounds.
The guns are quite easy to modify, and parts and instructions are available online for a variety of conversions, including larger magazines and conversions to allow the gun to be used as a fully automatic. This, says Rico, is what he believes was meant by “Switch”.
A semi-automatic gun fires each time the trigger is pulled. A fully automatic weapon continues to fire as long as the trigger is held down.
However, the filing does not confirm that this weapon was used in the shooting, only that the shooter was in possession of it leading up to the shooting.
The shooter also sent a photo to Bryant in the outfit they planned to wear, holding a pistol grip rifle. While it appears to be an SKS with an ATI pistol grip and a 3D printed suppressor, the actual model of the gun has not been identified.
In a separate image is a Canuck brand shotgun, decorated with a trans planet sticker. Again, while not confirmed to be one of the weapon that was used, it is known that a shotgun was used at the residence.
In a Discord chat with Bryant, the shooter complains that “The police knocked my SKS sights off zero a lil bit when they roughly confiscated it, so the gun has been hitting high and to the left. And also the people who tripped my room like the insurance and stuff got rid of my old SKS sight adjustment tool so I need a new one and I need to go shooting to adjust it.”
Previously, the police stated that the main gun used by the shooter at the school was unknown to them. In a press release dated February 13, the RCMP wrote: “our investigation has also determined the main firearm believed to be used in the mass shooting at the school has never been seized by the RCMP and its origin is unknown.”
This seems to hint that the other gun—which has not been identified by the police, other than as a “long gun” may have been the one that was used primarily.
The term “long gun” defines a large class of weapons, from rifles and shotguns to submachine guns and machine guns.
Elsewhere in the court filing, the shooter refers to “dual magazine pouches for more Glock mags.” While there is no other reference to the other weapons, the SKS apparently does not hold Glock mags, as the ammunition does not fit.
While both these weapons (the SKS and the Canuck shotgun) are featured heavily in the court filing, they have not been confirmed to have been used at either the school or the home. In the court filing, the weapons used at the school are once again only identified as “a rifle and another long gun.”
If it wasn’t the SKS that was “primarily used” in the shooting—as this gun had apparently been previously seized by police and did not take Glock-style mags—the question as to what weapon was used is still open.
That question could be answered by a third image found in the filing. The image shows a screen shot of a discussion between the shooter and Bryant, as well as some photo thumbnails.
In those tiny images, the shooter can be seen holding what looks to be a third gun. While the images are small, dark and hard to see, a gun expert told the Canadian Press it looks like a KRISS Vector. Some variations of this weapon are semi-automatic, while others—highly regulated and restricted to military and law enforcement—are fully automatic.
Unlike the SKS, the KRISS Vector does hold Glock-style magazines. According to earlier reports, the shooter apparently posted (now deleted) videos using this style of weapon, and makes reference in the document to “extended magazines on my Vector.”
The KRISS Vector is illegal to use in Canada (though there is an amnesty on owning such weapons as there are several appeals before the court). Fully automatic version of the gun have been illegal since 1978, while all the other models were banned in December of 2024.
If this is indeed the gun that was used, it raises questions, including how the shooter managed to acquire the weapon. There is a possibility it was owned by the family, though the RCMP described the weapon used in the shooting as “of unknown origins.”
Earlier this year, a photo of the shooter’s mother’s gun cabinet was discovered on Facebook. One of the guns in that cabinet appeared to be the KRISS Vector (alongside an SKS). The photo was posted before the gun was banned. But there is also a chance it was acquired more recently.
Meanwhile, a fourth weapon that was seized at the family resident after the shooting remains unidentified, though in one of the ITOs released in August (an ITO is an Information to Obtain affidavit used when requesting a search warrant), there is mention of a pellet gun. However, that mention was from the early days of the investigation, and at the time, it was announced that one of the weapons at the school was a modified handgun, not a rifle.
While there was discussion of the shooter bringing a handgun along to the school, no word of a third gun on scene has been confirmed, though that does not necessarily mean anything, as it was only in this most recent court filings that we learned of the shooter using an Improvised Explosive Device at the school.
It is also possible there was some confusion over the designation of the KRISS, which is a very short gun, and could have been mistakenly identified as a handgun. The shooter also considered 3D printing a handgun as well.
None of this information has been confirmed by the RCMP or the FBI, and when asked, Canadian Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree has said it would be “irresponsible” to disclose the information.
This hasn’t stopped gun control groups—most notably PolySeSouvient, a group formed after the Ecole PolyTechnique shooting in Montreal and spearheaded by one of the survivors—from seeking the “immediate ban on the SKS and an end to magazine loopholes.”
According to the group, this weapon was recently used in June in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood. Three people were shot—two killed—during that incident including a police officer.
While laws limit the size of magazines—typically a maximum of five cartridges for semi-automatic weapons, Poly PolySeSouvient says that large-capacity magazines are easy to get. “Canada’s magazine regulations are riddled with loopholes and exemptions. For example, ‘dual magazines,’ [which the shooter references] which consist of two magazines taped or clamped together so a shooter can swap them faster, are legal in Canada.
“A ban on assault weapons means little if some models remain legal and devices that make guns more deadly are easily accessible,” says Poly SeSouvient. “Modifiable magazines, dual magazines and a series of exemptions help mass shooters increase the lethality of any gun, including turning ordinary firearms into quasi-assault weapons.
“Astoundingly, one can legally purchase a non-restricted SKS with a 48-round drum magazine ‘pinned’ at five rounds – while such pins are easily removable according to the RCMP, as several mass shooters have done.”
The group argues that all assault weapons need to be banned, and all magazine loopholes closed. “The families of Tumbler Ridge and all Canadians horrified by this tragedy deserve action, not more consultations. The evidence is right in front of us. The government must act now.”
However, Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that there is an arms-length panel studying firearms classification, and the government is waiting for a report before making any decisions on semi-automatic weapons like the SKS.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
