The inventor of the Kalashnikov assault rifle apparently wrote to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church before he died expressing fears he was morally responsible for the people it killed.
Mikhail Kalashnikov, who died last month aged 94, wrote a long emotional letter to Patriarch Kirill in May 2012, church officials say.
He said he was suffering "spiritual pain" over the many deaths it caused.
Kalashnikov had previously refused to accept responsibility for those killed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25709371
Interesting article... the AK-47 (and its variants) definitely changed the landscape of modern warfare.
Curious that the proliferation of his 65-year-old invention caused him such mental anguish in his final days...
But how much can the inventor truly be blamed? If not the Kalashnikov, surely some other automatic rifle would have filled the void... maybe not as simple and elegant of a design, maybe not as rugged and inexpensive, but equally efficient killing machines none-the-less.
Doesn't it all still boil down to human nature and malicious intent? Or is the tool truly to blame in this case?
It is thought that more than 100 million Kalashnikov rifles have been sold worldwide.
It definitely had an impact, that's for sure...
