AK-47: Pop Icon

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AK-47. When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfucker in the room. Accept no substitutes.

Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson) -Jackie Brown (1997, Quentin Tarantino)

This is gonna sound contradictory. I hate guns. But at the same time, I'm extremely fascinated by them (this would probably explain why I'm designing a bunch of t-shirts around it). Whatever your stand is in the light of Columbine, Virginia Tech etc, weapons are now icons in popular culture and in this vein, the AK-47 is the grand daddy of them all.

60 this year and still showing no signs of slowing down, the AK-47 is a class unto its own. Anecdotes abound about how the VC used to pull them out from the muddy rice fields where they have been lying for years, giving them a hard kick and loading the magazine to have them fire perfectly. With few moving parts and being oh-so-easy to use, the AK-47 is one of the rare few inventions that gets as close to perfection as one could ever hope to. And because of this, the AK-47 is the indeed the weapon to put into the hands of a teacher, postman, father or even a child to turn them into soldiers of war.

Beyond pop culture (FYI, Ice-T has one), Osama cradles one in his videos and I'm pretty darn sure he will brandishing (and using one) if and when the Yanks find him. The Hezbollah has one on its flag. Charles Taylor in Liberia armed his militia with them. Mexican gangs nicknamed it the Horn of the Ram alluding to its curved magazine. There’s hardly a more potent symbol of an armed revolution. In fact, there is an AK-47 price index which is as accurate a barometer of a country’s unrest as any. In times of peace and indeed in some parts of the world, you could buy one for as low as USD$10. Prices in Iraq have no doubt peaked (USD$2000 in January 07, Baghdad). But maybe not since the US lost 190,000 of them recently.

Update
AK-47 Cuerno de Chivo t-shirt delivered.