Mikhail Kalashnikov Dies at Age 94

Regardless of your feelings about automatic rifles and their place in modern society, there is no denying the military utility of such weapons as brutally efficient killing machines. And of the innumerable automatic rifles created in the past seventy five years perhaps none had the impact of Mikhail Kalishnikov's reliable, simple, and effective AK-47 (and its modern variants).

On December 23, 2013 former peasant, World War II veteran, and eventual Lt. Gen. Mikhail T. Kalashnikov passed away in Izhevsk, the capital of the Russian republic of Udmurtia. Born on November 10, 1919 Kalishnikov lacked a formal education, but was an inveterate tinkerer.

In the year's immediately following WWII he responded to a competition to create a new rifle for the Red Army by creating perhaps the most iconic weapon of the past century. Mass produced in the tens of millions, and exported around the globe on a scale that dwarfs any other firearm in history the AK-47's reach was simply astonishing.

For that matter the AK-47 stands today as the world's most ubiquitous and accessible firearm; and will likely continue to define Mr. Kalishnikov's legacy for decades to come.