Was Kalashnikov guilty of killing people with his invention?
@TypicalRussian (747)
Budennovsk, Russian Federation
October 27, 2015 10:18am CST
Kalashnikov machine gun is a world-known weapon.
Mikhail Kalashnikov invented his gun in 1947 and it is still popular and reliable.
He died in 2013 at the age of 93. 6 month before his death he wrote a letter-confession to Patriarch, where he was very sorry that he felt guilty of numerous deaths that had been caused by his AK-47 gun.
It is shameful to judge people who invented something useful. But i think it is really complicated to judge people who invented weapon, and they had known that their invention would use in a way of killing.
Was he responsible for all the deaths caused with his gun? It is difficul to say. I wouldn't like to take his place.
2 people like this
3 responses
@Poppylicious (11134)
• United Kingdom
29 Oct 15
If something has been designed and created with the sole intention of being something which kills then yes, the creator is guilty.
1 person likes this
@connierebel (1557)
• United States
28 Oct 15
No, I don't think he's responsible. Any country needs weapons, and he was just supplying that need for his country. Since it was so reliable, it then became popular in the rest of the world. If it is used wrongly, he can't help that. Anything can be used to kill people.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (35122)
• United Kingdom
27 Oct 15
That's a difficult moral question. Obviously a person who uses an object to kill someone is guilty, but is the person who created that object also incriminated? Not necessarily, because all sorts of things can be used to kill (scissors, knives, fireworks, fuel, all types of garden or household tools, plastic bags, pillows, clothing, vehicles....) and those things were created largely for some other intended use. But what if the object in question is created specifically for killing? Then the waters are far more murky. The only consolation is that there is a good chance that someone else would have invented something similar if Kalashnikov had not got there first.
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