Firearm fixations . . .

— Original issue, milled receiver. —

IT'S NOT JUST THE N.R.A. and American trailer park slobs who salivate over guns. Guys from other cultures obsess too, which is explored by a post on Tablet, “How Sweet, Smart Kids Under Occupation Come To Worship Militants” by Haroon Shah who states, “In the heart of Kashmir, where happiness was a warm AK-47, the weapon was my voice, and my dream”.

— Today's 12-gauge —

Popularly known as Kalashnikov, AK-47 was the dream of every Kashmiri boy and the nightmare of every Indian soldier. The gun fired. It killed. It announced the dawn of a new age in Kashmir. What Kalashnikov did in Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Liberia, India dreaded it would do here. Muslim-dominated Kashmir was annexed by India in 1947 after signing a controversial accession pact with its Hindu ruler, with the promise of a plebiscite and greater autonomy. War soon erupted between India and Pakistan and both countries wound up occupying a part of Kashmir. India never carried out the promised plebiscite, and autonomy was slowly eroded as India aimed to gain absolute control of what it now saw as an Indian state or province.

It was not the lethality of the AK that India feared, for it had a million-strong army to counter it. It was the psychological change that the assault rifle unleashed everywhere it went.

And the ol' AK's been everywhere, to the misery of millions, and the extinction of African wildlife. According to Wiki, there's something like 100 million of 'em. The Russkies even make a 12-gauge version for gerbil-blasting, or something.