A Brief History
On December 23, 2013, Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet designer of the AK-47 assault rifle and its entire family of spin-off products, died at the age of 94 in Izhevsk, Russia. Before his death, he wrote to the Russian Orthodox Church about his personal doubts about having designed guns that killed so many people. In fact, about 100 million of his guns have been made, more than any other design. Is Kalashnikov the “greatest firearms designer? We list a few others to compare him with.
Digging Deeper
Samuel Colt, who perfected the revolver, and of him is said, “God created men, but Sam Colt made them equal.”
John Browning, who designed military and sporting guns such as the 1911 .45 pistol, M2 heavy machine gun, FN Browning Hi Power pistol, 1903 Colt Pocket Pistol, BAR, and several Winchester rifles and shotguns.
Or John Garand, designer of what George Patton called, “The finest battle implement ever devised.”
Bonus: Some other prominent firearms designers to consider include, Daniel Wesson, Paul and Wilhelm Mauser, James Paris Lee, Hiram Maxim, Eugene Stoner, Uziel Gal, Yisrael Galili, and Gaston Glock.
Question for students (and subscribers): Who do you think is the greatest firearms designer? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Gorenstein, Nathan. The Guns of John Moses Browning: The Remarkable Story of the Inventor Whose Firearms Changed the World. Scribner, 2021.
Kalashnikov, Mikhail. The Gun that Changed the World. Polity, 2006.
The featured image in this article, Mikhail Kalashnikov on a stamp, is not an object of copyright according to article 1259 of Book IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation No. 230-FZ of December 18, 2006.
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