Lots of them. Which means, at least statistically speaking, that some of them will be AK-47s.
The AK-47 was developed by Mikhail Kalashnikov (and his team) in the USSR in the mid-40s, as WWII was winding down. The final version wasn't quite finished in time for the fighting, and it first saw service in 1949, officially adopted at that time by the Soviet Armed forces and many members of the Warsaw Pact.
Its combination of durability and ease of use have made it a perennial favorite, and it has been frequently copied. So much so, that by some estimates, there have been 100 million AK-47s (including its many variants, copies, or knockoffs) made worldwide, which, again according to some fancy guesswork, means that out of every 10 firearms in the world, at least one is some form of Kalashnikov assault rifle.
Oh, and "AK" stands for the Russian abbreviation for, basically, "Kalashnikov Automatic." The "47" does not mean that it was the 47th model made, instead it reflects the fact that it was the version developed and submitted to the Soviet Army in 1947 (he had been working on the concept for a few years at that point).
I remember reading that American GI's in Viet Nam would cheerfully toss their M-16's when they could pick up an AK-47.
ReplyDeleteI believe it-- the first versions of the M-16s were apparently prone to corrosion and jamming, especially in the Vietnam jungle.
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