h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello, Long time since I was around to say hello.

I know hardly anything about guns.
The AK47, is recognizable to me only because of the reasons you gave, music,movies, and talk of them in our culture.

I wondered what the attraction,distraction and distaste for them is about.

Sounds like a very good quality weapon for war.
Is it better than what is typically made/used by the US?
I recall my Uncles talking about bad weapons in WW1 and WW2 and Korea. Are malfunctioning guns a common part of war?

Yes, they are. Even in the hands of an expert, malfunctions are common enough that special training involves what to do when they occur.

In another column I mentioned that so many AKs and their derivations have been manufactured over the years that there is no good reason for any other nation to design and manufacture anything else until the stockpiles are used up. It is not a question of "better" because a tool is a tool. A tool at hand is more useful than one that you have to go get.

The M16 and it's derivations as used by the US military were designed originally as light weapons to be carried by guards. It replaced the M1 carbine caliber-wise and the M14 length and weight-wise. The decision to turn it into a space-age wonder toy was hotly debated for years. In the hands of a draftee and a career soldier, it was often abandoned during it's early years in Vietnam and Nicaragua. What did the soldiers pick up in it's place? You got it, the locally obiquitous AK-47 or SKS carbine (a distant relative).

While the US and it's allies have spent fifty years improving their rifles and carbines and adding all kinds cute gadgets, the AK-47 has most often been found in the hands of their enemies.