The AK-47...in the Washington Post

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Over Thanksgiving, I got into a nice discussion with one of my in laws about guns. He, being of the Michael Moore camp, was telling me how he has recently softened his position towards guns because he realized that if he was for social freedoms, he'll probably have to be at least warm to 2nd amendment freedoms too. I brought up my reasons for owning guns, which included enjoying historical collecting of them, their use in hunting, their use in target shooting, their use in personal defense, and I of course mentioned their Jeffersonian use: fighting tyranny. His response was that, "a rifle is useless against a man in a tank."

This is true. But we wouldn't have to shoot at the men in tanks, only the men in suits.

Today's Washington Post has an article by Larry Kahaner, author of "AK-47: The Weapon That Changed the Face of War".

The article is relatively neutral, and it reminds me why the AK-47 is my favorite weapon. I own two of them, and plan on adding at least an RPK (a long-barreled, squad machine gun version) to my collection at some point. The article does a great job of explaining how that simple rifle enables any citizen off the street to be able to effectively resist a modern army; examples of which include Iraq & Afghanistan.