Torment from an instrument of death

A 2007 file picture of Russian weapon designer Mikhail Kalashniko posing with the first model of his legendary AK-47 assault rifle. - AFP

The late Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, designer of the world’s most renowned assault rifle, was not too happy about his deadly invention.

SEVERAL weeks after his death, Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, the designer of the world’s most renowned assault rifle, was quoted posthumously as saying his invention had brought him unbearable “spiritual torment,” as if finally acknowledging something akin to guilt on behalf of a weapon produced and sold in tens of millions to kill on a near-industrial scale.