AK-47 designer Kalashnikov wrote penitent letter

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: CBS News

In a regretful letter penned a few months before his death, Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47 assault rifle, asked the head of the Russian Orthodox Church if he was to blame for the deaths of those killed by his weapon.
The Russian daily Izvestia on Monday published the letter, in which Kalashnikov, who died last month at 94, told Patriarch Kirill that he kept asking himself if he was responsible. The AK-47 is the world's most popular firearm, with an estimated 100 million spread around the world.

"The pain in my soul is unbearable. I keep asking myself the same unsolvable question: If my assault rifle took people's lives, it means that I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, ... son of a farmer and Orthodox Christian am responsible for people's deaths," he said in the letter.

Kalashnikov also shared his bitter thoughts about humankind.

"The longer I live, the more often that question gets into my brain, the deeper I go in my thoughts and guesses about why the Almighty allowed humans to have devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression," Kalashnikov continued. "Everything changes, only a man and his thinking remain unchanged: he's just as greedy, evil, heartless and restless as before!"


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ak-47-designer-kalashnikov-wrote-penitent-letter/

[frazzled]

1. Why did I read "penitent letter" as ...

"patent leather"? Oh well, I'm a bit feeble today.

This is so reminiscent of the regrets that most of the scientists involved in creating the nuclear bomb had. Many worked hard and long afterward to prevent its use ever.

If you ever get the chance, try to see (and read the libretto of) the John Adams opera "Dr Atomic." It deals with the moral quandaries of scientists who, in the course of their jobs, unleash terrible things.

ON EDIT: Here's the aria from the end of the first act, where Oppenheimer (the great baritone Gerald Finley) deals with his moral dilemna, set to the words of the John Donne poem, "Batter My Heart." I can only think Kalashnakov felt this way.

[obxhead]

2. 100 million?

That seems like a low number to me.

[onehandle]

3. That's ok. Gun nuts, including imbedded trolls at DU, gave him absolution. nt

[bucolic_frolic]

4. The Collective Unconscious Lives

in the heart and mind of Mr. K

Such questions have not been asked since before the Crusades

Then the Pope promised that any who died in the Crusades would
go to Heaven

Knights became armed, and killing was ok again

Or was it the Arab invasions of 1072 that began it all

as Christendom realized they had to defend themselves?

[grahamhgreen]

5. May God have mercy on his soul. And all those in similar straights. And may they all live to

ask forgiveness for the deaths they have caused.

[truthisfreedom]

6. Sigh.

[rpannier]

7. He's trying to get into heaven -Bill Cosby- (n/t)

[calimary]

10. Yeah, lee atwater did that, too.

Deathbed apology/"conversion" to Michael Dukakis for the ruinous Willie Horton ads and other shit they pulled during that damn campaign. Yeah, when you actually feel the Grim Reaper breathing down your neck and you realize you're staring into the abyss...

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. "If my assault rifle took people's lives" - umm . . . - what else was it supposed to do?

.
.
.

CC

[Javaman]

9. "asked the head of the Russian Orthodox Church if he was to blame for the deaths of those killed"

if you have to ask...