The Wikipedia article on the AK 47 (Automat Kalashnikov 47) tells us that over 100 million of the assault rifle and its derivatives have been manufactured since 1947. That is one for every 70 people in the world.
Look around you and be thankful that your office and your city is not representative of this average. While we are at it, let us strike off all the places where the AK47 is not commonly found outside of use in the armed forces; that would be China, India, Japan, the United States, Western Europe, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Together, these places add up to a population of about 3.5 Billion.
In the remaining parts of the world, i.e. Africa, Central Asia, Middle East and South America, there is an AK 47 for every 35 persons alive. Given that law and order in these parts of the world is not exactly stringently enforced, these guns are fired at an alarmingly frequency. We have the results for all to see in the news; wars in Central Asia and in the Middle East, and the exploits of warlords in Africa who hold entire populations to ransom. Every year, more than 250,000 people lose their lives to the AK. That is more people killed every year than the total number who lost their lives to atomic weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or ever.
It makes one wonder where so many of these weapons were made and how is it that they were freely sold to anyone with a few hundred dollars. Being a product of the Soviet Union, the AK is not protected by patents and intellectual property rights. According to this article on quora.com, the assault rifle is made in a ridiculously large number of countries including Poland starting
in 1957, followed by Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, China, East Germany,
Egypt, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Romania, Yugoslavia and
recently the United States.
During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, it is said that the CIA funded purchase of large numbers of AK47s to supply to the Afghan resistance. It appears that they have been proliferating in the field ever since. In Africa in particular there appears to be a huge secondary market for these weapons. When skirmishes end in one part of the continent they begin in another and people who are done with their fight are willing to sell them on to others in need. With used examples changing hands for as little as US$30 according to the Wiki article, and the weapon needing almost no training at all, its use is only growing in popularity.
No matter how many pageant queens are wishing and praying for world peace, I wouldn't hold my breath. World peace is going to be a long time coming.
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