
Kalashnikov (maker of the iconic AK-47) faces bankruptcy - chaostheory
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/kalashnikov-faces-bankruptcy/article1296238/
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jrockway
I can't say I'm too sad about gun makers going bankrupt.

I guess this is OT but I will say it anyway... Humans will probably always
want to kill each other, but humans will also continue to be lazy. When you
have to knife someone to death, you get bored before you can do too much
damage. When you have easy access to an assault rifle, you may kill more
people than you meant to, because it's very very easy to quickly kill lots of
people.

So less cheap assault rifles == less killing. And I'm for that.

(As for gun control, I am not really sure. Chicago has a totally
unconstitutional law against guns in the city limits. But as a result, you
rarely read about people being shot to death on the L... they just have their
bags stolen or whatever. I think that is a good thing.)

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manvsmachine
Point taken, but this story doesn't really indicate that the small arms trade
is in decline, just that "knock-offs" have reached sufficient quality levels
that they are considered a viable alternative to an authentic product. Same
thing that's happened to the auto industry, the software industry (with open
source), etc. Guns have become a commodity product.

This has happened to a lot of other guns. There are tons of clones of the
AR-15, the Walther PPK, the Dragunov SVD, and the 1911. These are just off the
top of my head, so I'm sure there are others. The only reason Colt / Armalite
isn't in the same position is probably because our military is _way_ more
active than Russia's. That, and AK-47's are notorious for being sold to
developing nations, who probably want to maximize their bang for the buck (no
pun intended).

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jrockway
_Point taken, but this story doesn't really indicate that the small arms trade
is in decline, just that "knock-offs" have reached sufficient quality levels
that they are considered a viable alternative to an authentic product._

What's interesting is that these companies have lower costs because they don't
do any R&D like the original inventors do. With no money for research, nobody
will invent a more efficient gun. Hopefully.

~~~
anamax
> With no money for research, nobody will invent a more efficient gun.
> Hopefully.

You don't have much experience with people.

~~~
jrockway
Like I said in my first post, people enjoy killing each other... sure... but
the urge to be lazy is even stronger than the urge to murder people that you
don't like.

~~~
shpxnvz
Murderers, however, aren't the people who demand, pay for, or influence the
design and manufacture of new weapons. The people who do are involved in a
professional capacity, so I'm not sure how laziness applies either.

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taitems
"However, Mr. Kalashnikov's design was never patented and the production
agreements were largely handshake deals."

Well, what can I say? Bad luck?

From another article from 2007 -
[http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL06893771200707...](http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0689377120070706)

"People say: 'If you lived in the West you would have been a multi-millionaire
by now.'"

"They get hung up on the green stuff, on dollars. But are there not other
valuable things in life? Which of the Western weapons makers can say that a
bronze statue of them has been built in their home village?"

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maxklein
What I find interesting about the AK is that it is also a logo. The product
can be drawn in outline, and you still know what it is. That is the best type
of product success.

~~~
akamaka
See the Flag of Mozambique, for example:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mozambique>

~~~
lsb
When the Wikipedians say that it "is the only national flag in the world to
feature such a modern rifle", it sounds like the Onion video of the faux
Chinese minister beaming at the high cancer rates, proud of such a modern
disease afflicting the populace.

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anigbrowl
_Although less accurate than other machine guns, the AK-47 is easier to use
and more durable. “It's simple, it's cheap, it's indestructible,” Mr. Kahaner
said. “You can fix it with a coat hanger and a piece of gum. You can bury it
for 10 years in the sand, pick it up out of the ground and it still works.”_

You mean it keeps working forever?! How are we supposed to make money out of
something like that?

Seriously <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AK-47> has many interesting insights
into the design and manufacturing history - given that it's basically a hybrid
of the best bits of other guns, much of this information is transferable to
other domains.

~~~
dkersten
A friend of mine was shooting AK-47s in a shooting range in asia and he said
it jams easily. Dunno how that fits in with "you can bury it for 10 years"

~~~
1gor
That probably was a knock-off. I went through 6 months army training camp with
one of those (the original), used it almost daily, and it did not jam once.

~~~
dkersten
Good point, actually.

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patio11
Alternative title: Kalashnikov discovers pirates, et al, unwilling to pay for
intellectual property.

~~~
sunkencity
but it isn't their intellectual property because they have no copyright --
this design is in the public domain

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nosse
Kalashnikov never got a penny from it. Izhmash being in trouble probably
doesn't effect mister Kalashnikov in any way, so the headline is missleading.

One of the best AK clones, the RK-95 of finnish military is truly good
quality, durable and simple weapon. If the barrel is well machined and good
ammo is used this weapon is as accurate as any other to 150 yards.

Lots of cheap weapon out there means lots of unnecessary violence. Usually
people who are planning a killing spree don't really mind second grade cheap
guns and ammo. People who want to defend themselves are usually only satisfied
with the best.

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bballant
Alpha Blondy, who is a reggae artist from the historically war-ravaged West
African country, Côte d'Ivoire, has a song called Kalashnikov Love --
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgSkpRhP5nI> \-- which I think speaks to the
sort-of mythical level of importance this gun has achieved in the developing
world. It's a great song.

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onreact-com
Sadly there are plenty of copycats who produce enough AK-47 guns to kill us
off twice.

