I noticed that the Seattle Times and the Tacoma Tribune marked the sixtieth birthday of the AK-47 today.
MOSCOW — Sixty years after the AK-47 went into production, Mikhail Kalashnikov says he does not stay awake at night worrying about the bloodshed wrought by the world’s most popular assault rifle.
“I sleep well. It’s the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence,” Kalashnikov said today at a ceremony marking the birth of the rifle, whose initials stand for “Avtomat Kalashnikov.”
I’m interested that they would print an article like this, knowing that Washington State, and Seattle in particular, tends to be a “little” left of center and not known to be particularly fond of guns of any type… especially the eeevil AK-47.
Since production began, more than 100 million AK-47s have been made — either at the home factory in the central Russian city of Izhevsk, under license in dozens of other countries, or illegally. Sergei Chemezov, director of the Russian arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport, said nearly a million a year are produced without license.
Wow, you know that’s causing a nightmare or two up there.
The AK-47 has been a mainstay in wars, coups, terrorist attacks, robberies and other mayhem. Its popularity comes from being rugged and easy to maintain, though its accuracy is not high.
Its accuracy is fine, its stopping power is plenty adequate, and it is simple to clean (it doesn’t need babying). What more could you want? By the way, the Trib article has some great pics of “Uncle Misha” holding his invention.
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