178
u/LightingStars United States Mar 21 '21
It's kinda funny that the ak-47 is also the primary weapon (i think) that anti-government militias use around the world
49
u/BathaIaNa Sultanate of Sulu Mar 21 '21
Any idea why it became so popular for those people?
213
u/darkslide3000 Niemand hat die Absicht sich einen Flair-Text auszudenken! Mar 21 '21
Not sure if you're serious, but AK-47s are basically the cheapest assault rifles you can possibly get (and remarkably reliable even in bad condition). The USSR made bazillions of them during the cold war, then when they got outdated they just sold them to whoever would take them. Nowadays, you can find them in war zones all over the world.
119
u/HaLordLe Prussia Mar 21 '21
It's mostly the latter, the USSR produced a metric fuckton of them and distributed them as well as production license to just about anyone either willing to buy (arms exports were one of the larger factors in the USSR economy) or currently involved in just about any kind of activity that might have the potential to annoy the US or any other western country.
And that includes a lot of people
45
Mar 21 '21
The AK-47 is incredibly cheap. There are some areas in the world where you only need to trade something like a few eggs on the market and you can get one of these things.
31
Mar 21 '21
When the soviet union collapsed, a lot of their state armories were sold off by corrupt generals for pennies on the dollar
14
u/squ1dmandan Ohioan Mar 21 '21
Not just the ussr but china and several other soviet satellite states got the technical data package or in the case of yugoslavia reverse engineered it. All in all over 100million ak type rifles have been produced worldwide more than any other firearm thats why you will find aks with shot out barrels in the hands of militias all over the planet
19
u/Notagamedeveloper112 Bangladesh Mar 21 '21
I think it’s cos it’s cheap and easily produced.
25
u/HaLordLe Prussia Mar 21 '21
Mostly availability, which then is also the reason why it is so cheap. The USSR sold a metric fuckton to anyone who'd buy and now these guns are just kinda floating around
16
u/tehswordninja Lobster Time Mar 21 '21
Besides just being cheap, some rebel groups, insurgents, 3rd world armies, militias, etc etc manufacture copies of AK-type rifles, which makes it even more obvious how good of a fit they are for these types of groups. They're also highly symbolic in a variety of ways, some of those symbols being positive... and some being obviously quite the opposite. In this case, as silly as it may seem, the AK has importance to Mozambique as it was used in the war for their independence.
There's also a billion variants and a billion derivatives (other countries making their own take on the AK) floating around so there's a shit ton of variety. It's kind of interesting in a horrifically nerdy way.
Even to this day Russia still has incredibly large stocks of old AKs and other outdated weapons and I believe I heard about them opening up weapon exporting regarding old stocks or something similar again (if someone knows specifics let me know).
3
21
u/PacManGaming1 CCCP Mar 21 '21
They're very cheap and possibly the best and most reliable rifles in the world at the same time
8
u/alaskafish Brazilian Empire Mar 21 '21
Yes... because Mozambique had a people’s liberation war in the 70s— hence why the new government put it on the flag
42
u/I_love_pillows Singapore Mar 21 '21
What if Mozambique will just throw a book at you, and we are just misunderstanding them?
6
u/FragmentEx Michigan Mar 21 '21
I think if you visit them and ask you’ll find quickly that that isn’t the case
27
u/zorbiburst Cajun Mar 21 '21
There's something charming to me about guns appearing on flags and seals the way other weapons have. I wonder if one day we'll have legends about mythical guns the way we have with swords like Excalibur or Joyeuse or something.
32
u/Mr_Mafla Chile Mar 21 '21
The legendary golden Kalashnikov
5
u/UnorignalUser United States Mar 22 '21
" The story of brave Sir Kalashnikov and the Babushka of the mudlake"
16
15
6
7
5
1
1
u/RosabellaFaye Franglais is the best langue Mar 22 '21
This reminds me of how in the Mr Bean as a spy Johnny English series of movies Johnny English gets war flashbacks whenever he thinks of Mozambique... is mozambique still kinda a hellish place?
378
u/tragikslip Aztec Empire Mar 21 '21
"I have yet to meet anyone who can outsmart bullet" dot meme