Again With the AK-47
FlaglerLive | March 8, 2012
The AK-47, most popular assault weapon in the world.
It was an AK-47, remember, that William Merrill was allegedly playing with when he pulled the trigger and killed his wife, Stefanie, in February 2012, in Palm Coast. And now this.
From the Times-Union: “The fired Spanish teacher who killed Episcopal School of Jacksonville head Dale Regan on Tuesday brought with him nearly 100 rounds of ammunition for an AK-47 assault rifle he purchased at a Jacksonville gun show early last month, a police source familiar with the investigation said Wednesday. It’s unlikely anyone will ever know why Shane Schumerth chose Regan as his only target, shooting her as many as 10 times before killing himself, the source said. Investigators have yet to find a note or other indication as to Schumerth’s motive, said the source, who has not been authorized to speak publicly about the case.”
The AK-47 was approved for general use by the Soviet military by Josef Stalin in 1947 (hence the 47). It’s the invention of Mikhail T. Kalashnikov (born in 1919, still alive as of 2012), hence the K. The A stands for Automatic. Avtomat Kalashnikov, to be precise. From The Times on Nov. 11, 2004: “The story that surrounds General Kalashnikov reads like Soviet legend, the tale of the archetypical proletarian man. He was the uneducated son of peasants who became a sergeant assigned to a tank, was injured in World War II in battle against the Nazis and then labored through countless nights – first in his hospital bed, later in secret institutes – to create weapons for the masses. In 1947, one of his prototypes won a state competition and was selected for mass production. It was given a mundane designation: AK-47, an abbreviation for “automatic by Kalashnikov,” followed by the year of its selection. The abbreviation would in time enter martial lexicon.”
And here’s Jo Durden-Smith, writing in The Times on May 29, 2994: “The Kalashnikov isn’t just a gun; it’s a legend, a currency, a symbol of liberation and violent, random death. And it changed the way wars are fought forever. It’s cheap — an AK costs anywhere from $500 to a bottle of brandy — and it works everywhere, in sand and water and ice and jungle. Stories abound of AK’s found buried in graves or in swamps and coming up firing; stories about how they could always be made to work with a kick start, like a motorcycle, or with a couple of pebbles pushed down the barrel with a cleaning rod. Anyone can learn to use an AK-47 in two or three minutes. You don’t even have to clean it much. And that has made it the perfect weapon for peasant irregulars and professional infantry alike. During the Vietnam War, American G.I.’s picked up Kalashnikovs from the dead and threw away their M16′s; today, 16-year-old rebels in Rwanda may lack uniforms but not AK’s. In the Sudan, one marching song translates roughly to: “Can’t get no cash, you’re trash without a Kalash.” In the United States, the inner cities teem with AK-47′s; earlier this month, after heated Congressional hearings, their importation was banned, along with the production or importation of 18 other assault rifles.”
See below for a more complete history of the AK-47.
Download The AK-47: the world’s favourite killing machine
And if you want to write a story about a device responsible for millions more deaths and injuries than the AK in the U.S., you can detail the history of the automobile.
Cars don’t kill people ~ drivers do.
The NRA will be ALL over me for this, but NO private citizen should be allowed to own one of these things; their sole purpose is to kill PEOPLE, as many as possible, as quickly as possible.
Screw the NRA. I’m totally with you Angela. All automatic weapons of this type should be banned.
Yeah! Because as soon as they’re banned (they already practically are) puff! they’ll disappear and deranged individuals will magically stop being deranged. Either that or it will just cost a little more to find one, or they’ll just find another way to accomplish what they’re set on accomplishing.
and what.. only let the gov and police have weapons like this? that guy could have walked in with a sotgun or rifle from walmart.. whats the difference? guns will continue to be a problem until there is a more effective way to kill people and then it will be that
I suggest we all send cards, congratulating the NRA for a job well done each time an innocent victim is shot. They’ll get the message.
I suggest you read and understand the Constitution of the United States of America and then maybe you will get that message. People who have little to no understanding of this vital document are so readily willing to discard their freedoms at the promise of a some imagined security. Note carefully the position of this amendment with regard to the others… It is the only thing that genuinely guarantees the one before it. An unarmed populace is easily silenced and controlled.
This AK47 is made to hunt humans not game. Where is the NRA risponsibility on these weapons abuses.
The NRA has on their agenda the licensing of bazookas, rpgs and tanks to private citizens
with the $$$ for a range and the piece of equipment.
God bless the NRA.
I think their “buy a kid a gun for Christmas” program is great.
lets get real, if somebody wants to kill somebody, they’re going to do it regardless of whats available. people use AK’s because they’re glorified in movies and video games, and its just an awesome looking gun. somebody crazy isn’t going to say to themselves “oh darn, if i had an AK i would kill this person, but since all i have is this pump shotgun, i won’t…”
good article. you write beautifully.
Good point. More people in Florida die from drowing in a swimming pool than from gun shot wounds.
“From my dead cold hands”
Ok…Lets get the info right and stop with all the DIS-INFORMATION. To purchase a SEMI-AUTO AK-47 at any Gun Show in Florida the seller will call the FBI data center and run your drivers license to see if your a felon or mental. Next, the AK-47′s that are sold are SEMI-AUTO rifles….Just like all the AR-15 rifles that are sold. The are LEGAL to own even in California with a 10rd magazine. They have been around for 60 years. There not going to up and disappear. As far as people deciding to kill other people, there is NO WAY any government or police dept. can stop it from happening. You must be a prepared individual with knowledge to protect yourself.
best gun ever made!! everyone should own one! i hunt with mine
Why does the NRA have to be responsible for these guns? People kill people! EVERYONE who is against gun owning does not have a gun and does not know what you have to do to buy a gun! We could be like Europe. Where guns are outlawed people stab people! THE END.
THANK GOD THEY DID NOT OWN A PITBULL AND A AK RIFLE.THEY WOULD HAVE TO MOVE TOO THE R SECTION!!!!!
It was just a few years ago where that woman in Texas drowned her five kids in a bathtub. Maybe we should cut off everyone’s hands and outlaw bathtubs too. On a MINOR note, the founding fathers guaranteed the right to bear arms so the citizenry could protect itself from a tyrannical government. That was the original intent, to defend against a dictator. It kind of makes one wonder why our current president stated we needed a national police force as strong as the military. Really? Why?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx2PP4pYGno
The most dangerous things in Palm Coast are swimming polls, old people driving and kitchen knives. Lits ban them too and lets ban anything thats dangerous
Each year, about 4,000 people die from drowning in the United States. Drowning is a leading cause of unintentional injury death among all ages.
http://www.backyard-lifeguards.com/resources/water-safety-statistics
In 2004 (the most recent year for which data is available), there were 29,569 gun deaths in the U.S:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070519115058AATuck2
Yes lets let them decide what we should do. I mean how should we know how to live our own lives right? Give them all our freedom. Yes maybe there are 29569 deaths by gun every year, how many of these are LEGALLY OWNED” guns. Do you people really think that people who go through proper channels to have a gun are out to kill other people? Yes there are whackos but they are few and far between. Any criminal will get what they need to kill if that is the intention. We have already given them TOO much power. Maybe the swimming pool will be banned next. Heck the just passed this law and look how many die. 113 children/people die in farming equipment accidents every year…oh and look now it is illegal and they banned kids from working on family farms or any farms… no one under 16 is allowed to do so…..yeah what else can we let them run for us…next they will be coming in our homes and telling us what to pack for our kids’ lunch. OH WAIT!! They are doing that too…couple kindergartener’s lunches were taken by federal agents at school and replaced with chicken nuggets and milk..what did they replace? The kids had turkey and cheese sandwich, chips, an apple and a chocolate milk. BAD PARENTS!! Look it up..it was in NC. Screw this…they need to mind their own business and you people who think guns need to be banned need your heads examined. Anyone who tries to come in my house and tell me how to live my life or raise my kids, better bring their own gun, cause I wont be giving any of mine up any time soon.
This I love my AK to hunt and other absurd rationale for gun hording pretty much sums up a citizenry so far right they’re about to fall off their flat earth.
I would no sooner do that than I would drive around Bunnell with a noose in the back window of my car. Either one would be a racist overture, which is not my cup of tea. The satisfaction comes from the fact that I, and millions of other Americans can legally possess such a weapon and harm noone with it. It’s kind of like this: you rattle my brain with your liberal commentary and I’ll rattle your’s by exxercising my constitutional rights. Fair enough?
Outsider, would you apply the same rationale to Zyklon B and how owning it gives some people the pleasure of ticking off Jews? There’s absolutely no difference in what you said, except that as an extermination machine, the ak is probably the only thing that has Zyklon beat.