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“The plan is to add external features that would allow the use of accessories like flashlights and laser rangefinders. According to Chivers, at its core, the new Kalashnikov is basically the same rifle.” Click here to hear C.J.’s interview with NPR. Click here to read Martin Albright’s review of Chivers’ book on the AK, The Gun.

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10 COMMENTS

  1. During the test firing noone is wearing hearing protection or eye protection. They just have there fingers in there ears

    • well… I’ve heard that in the Malaysian Army they send people out into the middle of the shooting range to hold up the targets. Not under a berm, not in a trench, just a guy sitting down range holding a target over his head.
      So by comparison these guys aren’t that bad

  2. And I only caught the tiniest glimpse of a Russian pistol *that isn’t a Makarov.* I’m trying to find out more about the possible Glockski sighting…

  3. In typical NPR fashion, a dash of gun fear mongering was thrown in at the end. “The AK is thought by some to be the most dangerous gun in the world by how many people have been killed by it.” As if the gun its self is the reason people get slaughtered.

  4. FWIW any member of the AI who hasn’t read his book really should. Excellent and interesting history of the AK and doesn’t come off as anti-gun at all.

    jd

    • I’m actually reading it now. Excellent book, comprehensive but not too dense to be readable. In the intro he very much takes a pass on talking about U.S. gun politics, that’s not what the book is about at all. Personal arms ownership in a semi-civilized democracy is one thing, funnelling tens of thousands of AKMs, RPG-7s, RPKs, etc. to terrorist groups, warlords, and crazies all over the world is quite another. It is not anti-gun to decry arming child soldiers in Uganda.

      He makes a strong argument that the AK is THE weapon of the twentieth century.

      • funnelling tens of thousands of AKMs, RPG-7s, RPKs, etc. to terrorist groups, warlords, and crazies all over the world is quite another. It is not anti-gun to decry arming child soldiers in Uganda.

        I imagine they will blame USA private gun stores for that as well.
        Of course we know who really pushes the merchandise in the world’s arm bazaars.
        Beware of the military industrial legislative complex.

  5. Reading more about the actual AK-12, I’m surprised that it’s really only cosmetically different. Most of the improvements are where the Russians have adopted NATO standards.

  6. It’s moving away from it’s roots as the peasant’s rifle, and turning into more of a weapon for a professional military. The M-16 family, despite it’s horrible, and I would say criminal beginnings, has adapted into a workable military arm. The Russian arms are headed for the same middle from the opposite direction.

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