Toppling Governments
In response to the remark that toppling governments is not easy, which I made in a recent chat with my friend Mike he responded, and I quote "Its fairly easy all you need is some AK 47s, economic depravity and a bunch of drunk rebels."
In what I hope is sarcasm on his part, or a priming effect of this Blog; Michael's advocacy for the AK 47 places him in notable company. Earlier this week Reuters reported that the designer of the world's most popular assault rifle, Mikhail Kalashnikov says that U.S. soldiers in Iraq are using his invention in preference to their own weapons, proving that his gun is still the best.
The AK-47 is legendary for its ruggedness and reliability, it is simple and cheap to manufacture with minimal maintenance and overhead. Thus, making it ideal for small bread & butter war economies as well as super sized war economies, not to mention everything in between. It was designed by Kalashnikov towards the end of WWII (1947) based on the concept of the assault rifle envisioned by crafty German engineers. The standard AK-47 or AKM fires a 7.62 × 39 mm round with a muzzle velocity of 710 m/s (2,329 ft/s). Muzzle energy is 1,990 joules (1,467 ft•lbf). Cartridge case length is 38.6 mm; weight is 18.21 g. Projectile weight is normally 8 g (123 gr). The AK-47 and AKM, with the 7.62 × 39 mm cartridge, have an effective range of around 300 meters. It is essentially an effective dummy-proof killing machine which cuts through flesh like a hot knife through butter.
