Automatic For The People: The AK - 47 By C.J. Maloney
(2009-12-21 at 18:01:13 )

Automatic for the People: The AK-47 by C.J. Maloney

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. Kalashnikovs AK-47 as
the brand every Russian is proud of and they should be. Designated the
Red Armys 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 Americas
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 will 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 would 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 is 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
militarys preferred rifle.

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 is easy to understand Samuel L. Jacksons 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 is 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 todays 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 is 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 inch wide
screen plasma TV, that would 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 Gods 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 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.