The AK-47 has become the stereoptyical "assault rifle" of myth, media and movies. Thousands of novels have depicted the AK-47 as the Cuisinart of weapons, second only to the submachinegun (UZI, Mac 10, Sten, MP5) as the tool of both the bad and the good guys.

It is a mistake for me or anyone to lionize or demonize the AK-47 as the end-all and be-all of insurgent or defensive weaponry. In places in the world where AKs are sold and traded more often than computers, refrigerators or loo plumbing, it's older cousin the SKS carbine is almost given away. Like the AK, the SKS can be found almost anywhere. The Soviets and the Chinese, as well as the lesser lights of the Communist Bloc, used to give them out almost as party favors to their allies or would-be allies. Nowadays, they are found mostly in Serbo-Croatia and the United States, where Chinese newly-manufactured SKSs are found at gun shows and in pickup trucks next to military surplus ones from a dozen countries.

The SKS uses the same ammunition as the AK, but it is heavier and only fires in semi-auto mode, which makes them easier to import legally into the US, and makes them a more accurate companion to the AK. The Soviets and other countries liked to use them for ceremonial use as the AK doesn't lend itself to the manual of arms. As such, there are a lot of them with shiny stocks and chromed receivers and bayonets. The SKS is often found with an integral folding bayonet, which would seem to be an anachronism, but the Viet Cong apparently had the habit of using bayonets first to attack US outposts at night. According to some accounts, the distinctive sound of the bayonets being unfolded still resonates in veteran's memories.

Unlike the stock AK, the SKS lends itself immediately to hunting, supplanting the older lever action and bolt action weapons in many slightly more primitive cultures. Hunting versions of SKS and the AK can be found, with nice wood stocks and truncated magazines and the nastier "military" appearing appurtenances removed or hidden.

The SKS is not as cinematically "frightening" a weapon as the AK, and it doesn't lend itself to the iconography and militant poetry that the AK has found its way into. Yet, it is a part of the reality that when you think you know what is important, you miss that fact that what you think is unimportant may be the most dangerous thing around.