AK 47

(Newser) - Images from surveillance videos showing Robert Hawkins, the 19-year-old who killed eight people, and then himself, at Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, Wednesday, were released by the authorities today, the AP reports. Three still images taken by mall security cameras show Hawkins walking into the mall seemingly unarmed, then with...

(Newser) - Nearly a third of US weapons doled out to Iraqi security forces over the past three years are unaccounted for, a GAO report says, and insiders are worried they've fallen into the hands of insurgents. The weapons that the Pentagon can no longer track include 110,000 AK-47 assault rifles...

(Newser) - The Kalashnikov, the world's most popular firearm, has been a source of mixed emotions in Russia since it was invented 60 years ago, the New York Times reports. Putin calls the killing machine a "symbol of the talent and creative genius of our people." But almost none of...

(Newser) - In 1941, while hospitalized for wounds received fighting the Nazis, Russian soldier Mikhail Kalashnikov designed a rifle that combined the best of the American M1 and the German StG44.  The "Avtomat Kalashnikov," first produced in 1947, became known as the AK-47.   It is prized by...