Russian small-arms designer?Mikhail Kalashnikov is celebrated across the globe for his invention of the?AK-47, inarguably the most popular assault rifle ever. It has now come to light that soon before his death last month at the age of 94,?Kalashnikov wrote a repentant letter to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church expressing his fear that he was morally responsible for gun deaths?resulting from his invention.
In the letter, typed on his own personal writing paper, the aging?Kalashnikov conveyed deep remorse that the weapon he designed has been used millions of times in connection to the “devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression.”
I keep having the same unsolved question: if my rifle claimed people’s lives, then can it be that I… a Christian and an Orthodox believer, was to blame for their deaths?
Before the emergence of the letter,?Kalashnikov never expressly claimed personal responsibility for the countless lives taken using an AK-47, insisting that he had developed it only to protect the Fatherland. Instead, he blamed criminals and terrorists as well as rogue countries for placing the weapon in the hands of child soldiers.
Even though he never made much money from the rifle, ?Kalashnikov received many state honors including the Hero of Socialist Labour and the Order of Lenin.
Cheap, reliable and easy to manufacture, the AK-47 is by far the world’s most recognizable gun. It’s estimated that, since they first became available in 1949,?100 million AK-47s have been sold worldwide. Most states in the U.S. permit the sale and use of semi-automatic versions of the rifle.
Edited/Published by: SB
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Joseph Guyer?resides in the reddest state in the Union, a wondrous place where pick-up trucks proudly display swinging novelty testicles, fried sticks of butter are deemed safe for human consumption, and female escorts can lawfully be shot for refusing to sleep with you. He firmly agrees with Bill Clinton that there is nothing wrong with America that can’t be cured by what is right with America. You can read more of his work at?Liberals Unite?and follow him on Twitter?@joerobguy.
