bitter clinging swiftie
VIP Member
I recently read a book called "The gun" which which was about the development of the AK rifle. it went back to as far as the civil war, chronicaling the development of repeating and automatic firearms. and it also documented the spread of the AK rifle to all corners of the world. One passage that struck me was the book claimed that in the vietnam war, the average vietcong guerrilla was 98 pounds and had never fired a rifle before. It got me to thinking "could they have lasted as long, and drove the US from their soil with mosin nagants, sks's and ppsh-41's" Another example is during the soviet-afghan war; the mujahadeen were able to mass produce working replicas of the soviet made rifle with tools inferior to what you would find in a sears catalouge. The Kalashnikov is mass produced commercially in Sudan, North Korea and Cambodia, hardly technological powerhouses(I would be surprised if CNC technology exsists at all in those places).
Now I know, as an AK owner, that despite the design's simplicity and ruggedness,there are drawbacks to it compared to other military rifles, but for you armchair historians and military theorists, do you believe that the invention of the AK-47 has kind of leveled the playing field a bit in favor of less developed nations and guerrilla groups agains t tech and military powerhouses?
Now I know, as an AK owner, that despite the design's simplicity and ruggedness,there are drawbacks to it compared to other military rifles, but for you armchair historians and military theorists, do you believe that the invention of the AK-47 has kind of leveled the playing field a bit in favor of less developed nations and guerrilla groups agains t tech and military powerhouses?
