Friday, December 14, 2007

AK Challenge

A big argument used by those that would ban forever our ability to defend ourselves with firearms is that civilians shouldn’t have guns like any military has. And point to the AK-47s that have been in the news lately, in the hands of some wackos.

Well that gun was NOT like any gun any military has EVER had. The calls for banning that specific gun, and others like it, because it is the same assault rifle used or still in use by some army are wrong.

Oh, admittedly it LOOKS like the same AK-47 used by a bajillion tin-pot countries that the Soviets and/or their satellites exported to, but it isn’t. It doesn’t even function the same way. No military would equip their soldier with that type of rifle, available in our gun stores in this country today, if they could help it. And why should they, when real AK-47s or even better arms are available to them as cheaply. Or cheaper. An AK in Iraq costs $75. The thing that LOOKS like an AK is available in this country, and Iraq, for $500.

My challenge, cite a military, anywhere in the world, at any time since the 1940s (before the AK was invented) that used the same gun that the Omaha shooter used? A gun that looks like an AK, and functioned like the gun the Omaha shooter used. In other words, a semi-auto-only AK-47.

There might be. I doubt it, but there could be a country out there that doesn’t find an AK capable of doing all an AK can do a liability to their soldiers. I’m sure a gun enthusiast that reads this will pipe up in the comments. Seriously. I’m truly curious if such a beast has been fielded.

You cannot sell an AK-47 made after 1986 in this country legally. No assault weapons ban is needed. It is already, effectively, in place.


Only one shooting has involved real AK-47s, and that was that Hollywood bank robbery in the 90s. Those AK were already illegal before the robbery started and they fired off their first rounds. What law could be passed to make them MORE illegal? It’s illogical.

When a hoplophobe insists that guns that a military uses should be banned, then that hoplophobe needs to be corrected. No military uses the gun they are thinking of or pointing at on MSNBC.

Militaries don’t use the AR-15, either, so popular with so many gun enthusiasts. They use the M-16 and its derivatives.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the $75 AK-47s in Iraq are junk. Many of them are hand made in caves of Durra, Pakistan.

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2007/09/03/amazing-video-showing-the-gun-market-in-durra-pakistan/

Anonymous said...

The first news reports after the shooting claimed he used an SKS. What 's with the AK-47 reports now? You don't suppose the 'media' is pulling our leg do you.

Anonymous said...

Hi Stephen,

I do wonder if the media is pulling out leg. I just wrote a post about it

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2007/12/16/ak-or-sks-surveillance-camera-image-analysis/