The Kalashnikov is a family of Russian assault rifles built since the late 1900s, with the first being the AK-47, which was modelled after the German StG 44. Built by and named after Mikhail Kalashnikov, the weapon platform has been a popularly exported design shared with numerous countries, particularly following the second world war.
Famous for being reliable, effective, lethal, and generally being cheap and easy to maintain compared to other assault rifles (sporting not only simpler and more robust mechanisms but a triple digit price tag over a quadruple digit), Kalashnikovs are often used by more than just a given country's armed forces, with law enforcement, hunters, firearms enthusiasts and organized criminals all using some variation of the weapon platform being popular in Africa and Asia (in Japan. However, it is illegal for non-military or law-enforcement citizens to use firearms, though certain exceptions are made at shooting ranges and in firearms collecting.
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- Due to the weapon's user-friendly nature, Kalashnikov designs such as the AK-47 have been popularized in both real life and fiction as a weapon of choice for criminal organizations. The Monster Musume manga and subsequent anime adaptation make use of this fact with the Pioneer Orc Renaissance Kinsmen, with the vast majority of the group's members wielding variations of the Kalashnikov platform.