What is Reddit's opinion of The Gun?

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Surprised I didn't see one comment about "The Gun" by C.J Chivers. Very interesting and comprehensive book about the AK-47 and it's variants and how they have shaped the world. Anyone really interested in the weapon and it's history should check it out.

Uh, no. A whole design/manufacturing team produced the AK and Comrade Kalashnikov was given the majority of the credit for propaganda purposes. He was possibly the most important contributor, but one of many.

source: <strong>the Gun</strong> by C.J. Chivers

If you like more modern stuff, The Gun by C J Chivers was an enjoyable read. It focuses heavily on development of the M-16 and AK-47, but I thought the most interesting bits were on how the automatic rifle has changed battle tactics over the last century.

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Here we have an AK-47. Designed by a team led by the great Mikhail Kalashnikov, whilst participating in an assault rifle competition during 1946. His winning entry, the "Mikhtim" (so named by taking the first letters of his name and patronymic, Mikhail Timofeyevich) became the prototype for the development of a family of prototype rifles. This process culminated in 1947, when he designed the AK-47 (standing for Avtomat Kalashnikova model 1947), which we see here.

As a side note, if you ever get the chance to read the book <em>The Gun</em> by C.J. Chivers, I couldn't recommend it enough. It chronicles the economic and political history behind the rise and ~~fall~~ further rising of this iconic design.

Read The Gun by CJ Chivers. Very interesting book on the history and people involved in the creation of the AK.

You’re missing “The Gun”.

https://www.amazon.com/Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734

Highly recommend [The Gun by C.J. Chivers](https://www.amazon.com/Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734) on the history of the AK-47 vs. the AR-15. Lots of interesting stuff about gov't sponsored design, proliferation, and one of the many ways infantry were getting screwed by Washington.

>This is also entirely untrue.

Name a single gun pre-AK that was fully automatic, short, and weighed as much or less.

Also check https://www.amazon.com/Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734

The author makes a good argument for my point.

Recommended gunnit books?

May I suggest:

https://www.amazon.com/Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734

and

https://www.amazon.com/War-Flea-Classic-Guerrilla-Warfare/dp/1574885553

I recommend a book called 'The Gun'.

https://www.amazon.com/Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734

It won't help much in terms of differentiating all of the variants, but <em>The Gun</em> by CJ Chivers is an absolute must read.

> what do you do with your creations?

Never made a thing.

I was bad at carpentry when I was a kid - the birdhouse and flowerbox I made fell apart quite quickly.

> do you destroy them or sell them?

Nothing to sell, or destroy.

> if you sell them, who do you sell them to?

Cant' sell something that doesn't exist.

> who is aware of what you are doing

Uh, most of my professors have actually taught me what I know. One of them is good friends with CJ Chivers, a renowned, Pulitzer-winning weapons expert - he's written a great book about the AK. My professor's specialization is nuclear weaponry. She's very good at wargames, she went to Cornell, and she's taught at Harvard and Stanford.

> and what is the security level on your workshop?

I have no workshop.

I have the internet, mainly Library of Congress links, or JSTOR documents for uni.

There's so much information on youtube, alone, that you can just use it to learn how to do anything.

If you haven't ever googled/searched on youtube for something you want to learn, then you really should - it's a great learning tool.

Oh, and Forgotten Weapons is an excellent youtube channel, that has a wealth of info about antique weaponry. I highly recommend it.

If you enjoyed reading /u/ady159, I strongly recommend The Gun by C.J. Chivers. It is a history of the development and use of the machine gun.

I'm not responsible for militaries around the world, so I don't know!

However I have heard the saying that "Most militaries are eagerly preparing for the last war."

Honestly I think that most USA military planners (since Custer's last stand) envision long-range shootouts as the most common scenario. So they have traditionally uses rifles. Long-range shootouts were less common in Korea and Vietnam. They did occur in Iraq 1 and in Iraq 2 and in Afghanistan. But Iraq 2 and Afghanistan also involve CQC. And no single firearm is perfect for every war or even every battle. Also CQC is relatively new for the US military.

Military planners also imagine a well-trained and disciplined army of Annie Oakley-level sharpshooters and that isn't what they get. Have you ever seen photos of the WW1 training trenches that the British used to train their soldiers and then seen photos of the real trenches on the front lines in France? Entirely different. The first would make a general come; the latter were a heartbreaking reality. Ditto the average army clod - he can barely shoot his rifle.

Chiver's book The Gun discusses the planning processes used by Russian military vs those of the USA in development of assault rifles (hint: the Russians did it better, but neither process is anything near perfect).

There's not enough money and logistical support to provide every man in an army with a choice of the perfect weapon for each encounter. The rifle is a compromise - it can be used in every situation. It isn't the best in every situation but it can be used. But the shotgun is obviously a better weapon for CQC than the rifle.

Finally what's best for an army may not be best for an individual. I'm not part of an army, so nobody's going to tell me to advance 300 yards in the face of enemy fire and sharpshoot another 200 yards to blast some enemy lieutenant's ass off. If I were in the military then I would need a rifle to do that. But I'm not in the military and if someone tried to make me do something like that I would shoot them with my shotgun!8-)) In a sense, all politics is indeed local.

I think you would enjoy reading this: https://www.amazon.ca/Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734