[1066AD]

Might be fun to listen to the programs.

AK-47 is broadcast on BBC World Service's World Today programme every day from 4 to 8 December, 2005, at 0205 GMT.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4499478.stm

[RetiredArmy]

"The AK-47, the preferred weapon of your enemy. It has a distinctive sound. Get to know it." Gunny Highway in Heartbreak Ridge.

[Gordongekko909]

Here's a "deluxe" model that used to belong to Saddam:

And then there's Mozambique's flag:

[GSlob]

"The best there is" would be the Finnish Valmet copy. AK is a paint sprayer, and the Finns somehow managed to tighten it up without sacrificing reliability.

[.cnI redruM]

I've fired an AK-47 once, and it was like the crack cocaine of assault weapons. I loved it. No wonder Che got all the babes.

All joking aside, the AK-47 was a brilliant design. If you have an unskilled militia with no O&S structure whatsoever, you want a weapon that pisses lead, is impossible to break, can be operated by an illiterate and will fire anything you care to load into it other than roofing nails or chewing gum. That pretty much is what an AK-47 provided our enemy for about 50 years.

[04-Bravo]

"...and, with only nine parts, easy to dismantle..."

NINE parts? Who proofreads this stuff for the BBC?

[EastIdaho]

Speaking of AK-47s, this was on local news today...
Local Man Robbed at Gunpoint with AK-47


http://www.localnews8.com/home/2056027.html

[Redcloak]

...talking to the people who trade in it, the people who carry it, and the people whose lives have been destroyed by it.

I was unaware that the BBC had a necromancy desk.

[PsyOp]

The AK-47... The third worlds answer to the condom. Retroactive population control.

[Designer]

"..perhaps the most iconic..",

Amazing to hear constantly, but the average numb-skull reporter who would not know a rifle from a shotgun knows "AK-47" by rote - even without knowing what the initials and number stand for.

Iconic, isn't it?

[Blood of Tyrants]

It is a peasant's weapon with poor accuracy good only for close in fighting. Ask the AK-47 armed Iraqis who charged the soldier of the 507th who died after killing numerous Iraqis at 200 yards.

[joesnuffy]

The 'civilized' Western nations wont allow their honest citizens to own firearms or to become proficient with them
and keep up their skills...while their enemies nations
are swimming with such weapons...

Brilliant!

Luckily the AK family is still crap compared to the AR family...

Of course an AK is still infinitely better than no weapon
at all....

imo

[ctdonath2]

In the film Jackie Brown,

Yeah ... the definitive authority on military hardware is a fictitious character concocted by a movie director noted primarily for his profuse use of profanity and sadism.

[antiRepublicrat]

And estimates suggest small arms are implicated in more than 1,000 deaths every day.

Oh my god, 1,000 a day! That's horrible! That's a 0.006% mortality rate per year worldwide, and probably includes wars. That's nowhere near the deaths from, say, heart disease.

[BCR #226]

Man, this article is full of tripe... Only 9 parts in an AK-47? Let's see... we have the receiver, barrel, barrel trunnion, rear trunnion, hammer, trigger, disconnector, disconnector spring, auto sear, appropriate pins for all (total 3), bolt carrier and gas piston assembly, bolt, firing pin, extractor, retention pin and spring... then we have the front sight, with the two pins holding it, the muzzle brake, the accessory retention pin and spring, the gas tube and upper handguard, the lower handguard and the rear sight. Let's also not forget the stock and stock components as well as the trigger guard, the magazine catch and the pistol grip. I think we've established the BBC's credibility if they claim the AK-47 has 9 parts.

Also, Kalishnakov never felt bad about the design. He was honored to have been able to assist his homeland in such a great way.

I think I'll skip the obviously misleading and unresearched program on the BBC...

Mike

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

In the film Jackie Brown, gunrunner Ordell Robbie calls the the AK-47 "the very best there is... accept no substitutes".

Actually, he said, "When you positively, absolutely, have to kill every [expletive deleted] in the room. The very best there is...accept no [expletive deleted] substitutes."

[2nd_Amendment_Defender]

The AK-47 varies in quality depending on the model that is used. I would prefer a high quality U.S.A. or Russian made 7.62 x 39 AK-103 over a 5.56 x 45 M-4. 7.62 x 39 from a 16 inch barrel is very deadly out to 250 meters in the hands of a good rifleman.

A bullet from a 5.56 x 45 AR-15 with a sixteen inch barrel loses much of its velocity by 150 meters. Getting hit by 5.56 millimeter round from 150 meters or beyond would be like being stabbed with an ice pick. The M-16 with a 20 inch barrel adds about 50 more meters of really effective range.

Army should upgrade our M-16 to fire the 6.8 x 43 round that way any of our soldiers could give really effective fire out to 300 meters despite having a 14 1/2 inch barrel.

If a new round isn't adopted the Unites States Army should at least adopt the new Mk262 Mod 1 77 grain round over our current 62 grain round. A heavier bullet means that a round will retain a high velocity out to a longer range.

[Wake75]

...were responsible for some 60-90% of direct war deaths, estimated at 100,000 for 2003.

Only 100,000 worldwide for people trying to kill each other on purpose? We kill nearly half that many with automobiles each year by accident. Where is the UN?

[Irish_Thatcherite]

The AK-47 is favourite weapon of them bastards in the IRA!

RTE, Ireland's state owned (cringe) broadcaster, likes to think that Hibernofascists are different from Islamofascists, so they call the gun 'AK-47' when the Provos use it, and 'Kalashnikov' when the Muzzies use it!!

Note to RTE: AK means Automatic Kalashnikov.

[StarCMC]

people whose lives have been destroyed by it.

Ok. Those dang weapons are coming alive again I guess??? Yeesh!

[StarCMC]

The AK-47 is a GREAT weapon. Don't break into my house or you might be looking at the business end. *G*