Russian Designer of AK-47 Assault Rifle Dies at 94 - Hero or Villian?

*Never received a cent for his intellectual property - Communism sux*

This Obit, though well-meaning, has some inaccuracies, mostly due to outdated communist propaganda, such as "During the Vietnam war, American soldiers would throw away their M-16s to grab AK-47s and bullets for it from dead Vietnamese soldiers,” Kalashnikov said".  This is part myth part true due to the government screwing up fielding the first M-16's, (which had a high malfunction rate due to inadequate ammunition and chambers) and combat during the Tet offensive of 1968. During that battle, many US troops, being cut off from resupply, indeed grabbed AK's to keep fighting. However, they found this a dangerous proposition, due to the sound signature of the AK, any allied fighters hearing it would immediately start shooting at them, causing "friendly fire" casualties. None the less, RIP WW2 Veteran Kalashnikov, few men can live long enough to see their impact on history, and you indeed did change the world. For better or worse will be debated forever... (S9)

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The inventor of the world’s most famous firearm – the AK-47 assault rifle -- has died of undisclosed causes in his hometown of Izhevsk, near the Ural Mountains, a spokesman for the Udmurtia republic says. He was 94.  The “self-taught tinkerer” created the Avtomat Kalashnikov in 1947, nine years after joining the Red Army. He was driven to conceptualize the weapon while recovering from wounds suffered when a shell hit his tank. He was determined to create something equal to or better than the Nazis' superior cache. “Blame the Nazi Germans for making me become a gun designer,” Kalashnikov once said. “I always wanted to construct agricultural machinery.”...

*Not far off from his original ambitions, the AK has made millions of humans into nothing more than fertilizer for the soil they fell in after battle...Here is the "Shorty" AK-74 "Krinkov", a favorite of the late Osama Bin Laden and faux-terrorists on film, such as in "True Lies" (mock up lookalikes)*

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Read full story at: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/ak47-inventor-dies/2013/12/23/id/543440#ixzz2oMe4VuS0