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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

60 Years of the AK-47


Over 100 million AK-47s have been produced since 1947 and a million are still produced every year. The inventor, Mr Kalashnikov is not a rich man, receiving no royalties in the communist system, while licensing agreements between the Soviet Union and its allies across the globe mean that almost 90 per cent of his rifles are now not produced in Russia.

Asked whether he felt any guilt at the deaths caused by his invention, Mr Kalashnikov said: "I sleep well at night. Politicians are responsible for not resolving their problems without resorting to arms."

Very profound words for a weapon that has caused so many deaths.

2 comments:

James Higham said...

He's somewhat of an icon over here.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

The BBC journalist John Simpson met Mr K and wrote that he was the worst villain he had ever met - and he'd met a few - precisely because of what you say: he had no conscience whatsoever.