AK-47: Automatic for the People
Hisler
My work is my life, and my life is my work. I invented this assault
rifle to defend my country. Today, I am proud that it has become for
many synonymous with liberty.
~ Mikhail Kalashnikov
Recently Mikhail Kalashnikov, the man who designed the AK-47 (Avtomat
Kalashnikova model 1947) assault rifle, celebrated his 90th birthday.
Though already feted in his Russian homeland as an officially approved
hero at three previous events, President Dmitry Medvedev christened him
yet again to honor the occasion, this time as a "Hero of the Russian
Federation." That was on November 10, 2009 and America for the most part
completely ignored the festivities, as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
was released the same day.
Incidentally, the AK-47 is a prominent weapon in that game, just as it
is around the world. President Medvedev lauded Mr. Kalashnikov�s AK-47
as "the brand every Russian is proud of" and they should be. Designated
the Red Army�s primary infantry weapon in 1949, it has gone on to be
mass produced everywhere and anywhere by everybody, the Russian
communists not believing in such things as copyrights or patents. So,
unlike America�s Winchester family who became fabulously wealthy (and
insane) by inventing the repeating rifle, Mr. Kalashnikov gets a small
government pension, the occasional medal, and nothing else for all that
his efforts produced.
While the US industrial-military complex may get to play with an annual
budget which exceeds the rest of the globe combined, they have yet to
create a weapon even near the genius of the AK-47. It is so reliable
that you can literally drop it in the mud, step on it, pick it up, and
fire at will. (Try that with an M-16.) Drop it into a river, fish it off
the bottom, and she�ll fire just fine. US and British special forces
fighting in the inhospitable badlands of Central Asia are big fans.
Combine this amazing reliability with its incredibly cheap production
costs and you have the Honda of assault rifles; more of the AK-47
variants have been produced than every other assault rifle combined.
Noting studies that found most rifle combat takes place within close
proximity, the rifle has a maximum range of about 300 meters, or 3 1/3
football fields, yet when it comes to being able to hit anything 100
yards is more like it. Since the overwhelming majority of humans are
poor shots, semiautomatic or automatic variants are available for your
consideration. Six hundred rounds a minute can be placed onto target,
but you�d need to be a ridiculously fast loader to reach that number as
the curved magazine holds only 30 rounds. 100 to 400 rounds a minute is
more realistic, and still plenty. Some versions come with a wooden
stock, some with a metal stock which may be folded down for storage; the
latter variant is used by mechanized and airborne troops.
Firing a 7.62mm round that can either shred you (if it tumbles when it
strikes your body) or leave a nice clean hole (if it passes right
through) that can be patched up in a jiffy, the selective fire,
gas-operated rifle is so cheap to mass produce and maintain that over 50
armies the world over use it as their chief infantry weapon. Since this
leaves a lot of these things laying about, with plenty of ammunition to
boot, it�s the preferred weapon of choice for terrorists, Mafia, drug
dealers, assorted dictators, and other unsavory types. This fact gives
it a rather negative reputation in American eyes; any Hollywood
production with a villain almost invariably arms him with an AK-47,
never with the M-16, our military�s preferred rifle.
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Nonetheless, it is a supremely lethal weapon, giving any slob armed with
one the combat ability to take on a professional, and after you throw in
its ability to function reliably in any type of climate the Earth can
offer it�s easy to understand Samuel L. Jackson�s character from Jackie
Brown when he intones, "The AK-47. When you absolutely, positively got
to kill every mother****** in the room, accept no substitutes." Not too
many people do.
And that includes not just Iraqi and Afghani rebels but American
civilians, too, the last served by AK-47�spewing factories from sea to
shining sea. And here is where you should give the communists their just
due, as it was communism that put the working masses on an equal footing
to the political class in the event things devolve into a bar brawl.
Who says that God has no sense of humor, if a rather dark one, when He
gives for us the ironic fact that of all the forms of political
organization that humans herd themselves into there has been none more
reactionary, bloodthirsty, or political than Stalinism, and that�s the
one which gave us the cheap to produce, lethal, and amazingly low
maintenance AK-47. Besides corpses and vodka, the AK-47 was the only
thing communist Russia was ever able to mass-produce.
A guerilla army in today�s world needs little more than an ample supply
of AK-47s, something to believe in, and the support of those around them
to be unconquerable. That�s all. And Mikhail Kalashnikov, God bless him,
has put that ability in the hands of people from one end of the earth to
the other.
Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist No. 29 that should the
federal government ever turn despotic it "can never be formidable to the
liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little,
if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms." If every
American family had an AK-47 hanging on the wall over the 46"
wide-screen plasma, that�d force enough to give any army pause.
So next May Day, assuming you remember it at all, take a moment to honor
the memory of the millions slaughtered over the lethally stupid idea of
communism, but give a nod to God�s great mercy, to His mysterious way
that willed that very same idea to birth the AK-47. It gave to the
working masses the ability to defend themselves from the more virulent
strain of politicians; it is the sword of the common man. Of all the
firearms yet dreamed up by mankind, it is the automatic for the people.
December 21, 2009
CJ Maloney [send him mail] lives and works in New York City. He blogs
for Liberty & Power on the History News Network website. His first book
(on Arthurdale, West Virginia during the New Deal) is to be released by
John Wiley and Sons in February 2011.
Copyright � 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or
in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.