LONDON: It’s the weapon of choice of militants and freedom fighters etc., across the globe the Kalashnikov AK47.
From the mountains of Afghanistan to the Iraqi desert and the streets of Belfast, it has claimed victims from presidents to ordinary people.
Now, in an act of unexpected contrition, the assault rifles 73yearold inventor, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, will setup a fund to help the victims of his rifle and to encourage other small arms designers to develop weapons for “peaceful use.”
In an interview in Jane’s Defense Weekly, The Kazakhstan born gunsmith calls on his fellow arms manufacturers to create a fund for the wounded, following in the footsteps of other men-of-war turned philanthropists like Alfred Nobel and others. The reformed cold warrior announced: “I call on designers of weapons to form a fund to help those wounded in wars and to educate the young. I ask all designers and contractors of weapons to create peaceful weapons.”
Kalashnikov’s is a curious vision embracing newfound religion. He says that his life’s work echoes his belief in God: “Like nature it is also simple.”
He has made no money from his invention, which he dreamed up as a sergeant in the Soviet army while recovering from shell wounds in a military hospital during World War II. The Automotive Kalashnikov47 is a chcap, idiot-proof, lightweight weapon, with a firing rate of 600 rounds a minute. An estimated 55 million have been made. Now Kalashnikov hopes to use his international reputation to promote humanitarian fund raising.
“I don’t know whether other designers will support this idea,” he said. “It will not be easy.”
Article extracted from this publication >> March 5, 1993
