It's a tool of oppressors, of freedom fighters, and now of terrorists, the AK-47 is the most influential rifle in the second half of the 20th Century, and still its influence is felt in the early parts of the 21st Century. It is a rifle that has gotten the respect of its users, and scorn by those who were at frunt of its muzzle. While bad guys in movies use AK-47 and good guys the M-16, in world history the AK-47 has given the M-16 user a really good spanking.

Here is a book written by a Pulitzer Prize Winner, C.J. Chivers, about the AK-47, the ubiquitous assault rifle around. For to write a full book about the AK-47 is such a surprise, but then he is a reporter for the New York Times at their foreign and investigative desks, a graduate of Cornell University, and a US Marine who served in the First Gulf War. He knows what he is writing about.

No. This is not a book a review about his just released book, "The Gun", since I have not read the book yet and looking forward to doing so. But the reviews coming out of the press have been good and praises for the author. C.J. Chivers makes us look anew at an all too familiar weapon and understand. The Kalashnikov is not unique in itself as it follows in the footsetps of research in having effective firepower that started in the US 80 years before and there have been assault rifles that were developed before it, most specially the German StG44. But the AK is the most durable, easy to produce, most affordable, and widely distributed rifle inn the world. For almost seven decades, it is still going strong and is a mainstay in many armies and armed groups all over the world.

There is something about the M-16 rifle here as there's a portion in which the Pentagon suppressed tests results which would have brought about improvements to the rifle before it got issued to the soldiers in the Vietnam War and what the GIs got were faulty guns, and eventually lost the South of Vietnam to the Viet Congs and North Vietnamese.

"Along the way we are given the full history of how the AK’s rival, the M-16, was developed, procured, and introduced, one of the major disgraces in the history of American military small arms."  — David Petzal, Field & Stream, THE GUN NUT.

I recommend the you try reading this book. It may give you a proper perspective on the airsoft assault rifles that we use and take foregranted. It's now available at Amazon.com for US$16.80.

Watch the video uploaded by C.J. Shivers himself below: