The 'A' stands for automatic, the continuous rate at which it can fire; the 'K' for Kalashnikov, the name of its inventor; and '47' for 1947, the year of its invention.

The AK-47 assault rifle celebrates its 60th anniversary this year as an iconic military firearm and the most manufactured rifle in the history of the world.In Russia, the gun is treated as an important technological milestone and a superb commercial asset. In Guyana, though, celebrations passed without fanfare and with good reason. Citizens were still chilled by the spate of armed robberies and murders by criminals, some of whom had been armed with weapons similar to the AK-47, during the East Coast crime wave. Then, last year February, thirty-three AK-47 assault rifles were stolen from the Guyana Defence Force ordnance depôt. Evidence suggests that the stolen GDF weapons might have augmented the arsenal of criminal gangs. There is nothing to celebrate here. Last year, also, a cycle of killings started on January 30 when gunmen armed with the notorious AK-47s riddled television personality Ronald Waddell with dozens of bullets just as he was about to drive into his home in Subryanville.

A similarly armed gang slaughtered eight people in Eccles and Agricola villages on the East Bank in February.Then, Minister of Agriculture Satyadeow Sawh and three others were gunned down at his home at La Bonne Intention on the East Coast two months later in April. In August, gunmen, armed mainly with AK-47 assault rifles, made off with several million dollars from the Demerara and Republic Banks at Rose Hall Town, on the Corentyne Coast. They were all shot dead by the security forces, probably with AK-47s.

During the rest of the year, a few dozen more persons were murdered, many being gunned down execution-style. From the type of empty casings left behind at crime scenes, it seems that the smoking gun in most cases was the AK-47 or its offspring - the M-70 assault rifle. Police who routinely retrieve the characteristic 7.62mm empty casings from crime scenes claim that their ballistics tests have identified the guns fired in the attacks at Agricola, La Bonne Intention, Rose Hall and Crabwood Creek as AK-47 assault rifles. Prior to the advent of the AK-47 in this country, the Defence Force was equipped with British-Belgian FN self-loading rifles and German G 3 rifles.

The AK-47 was introduced to the local landscape as the standard infantry weapon in the wake of the administration's ideological and diplomatic swing, between the mid-1970s and the mid-1980s, when weapons were acquired from socialist countries. Now, the Defence Force, some parts of the Police Force and the President's Guard are also armed with these rifles which, though not 'true' AK-47s are offspring of the archetypal firearm.

Kumar-dead-AK-47  Kowsilla-AK-47  Ramjit AK-47

What accounts for the lethality, notoriety and ubiquity of this weapon? The AK-47 is prized for its simplicity, reliability and durability in difficult combat situations and in different climatic conditions. It can also be built relatively easily and requires relatively little training to be fired. The original rifle was manufactured in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics but production was licensed to many of its allies and client states including Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, India, Korea, Pakistan, Poland and Romania. It is estimated that more than 100 million AK-47 rifles have now been sold worldwide. Paradoxically, the world's largest customer in the market is the United States of America which has also become the weapon's most prolific distributor.

The USA has been a bulk purchaser since the 1980s when it supplied mostly Chinese and Egyptian AK-47s to anti-USSR insurgents in Afghanistan. It still issues the weapons to indigenous police and military forces in the Afghanistan and Iraq theatres of combat. The proliferation of production of these weapons could be problematic for Guyana.

Neighbouring Venezuela has become the second largest buyer of Russian weapons after Algeria. Russia has recently issued a licence to Venezuela to manufacture AK-47s. Soon, Guyana Defence Force soldiers bearing AK-47s will discover that they will also be facing similar guns in the hands of criminals on the coastland as well as soldiers of the Venezuelan Armed Forces along the western front. Either way, Guyana has little to celebrate.