You know what the gun community hasn’t debated? Whether the AK-47 or the AR-15 is a superior platform. Now that we’ve solved the argument about which is better between the 1911 or the Glock, Caleb over at Gun Nuts Media has decided to tackle the AK vs. AR debate and determine once and for all what rifle is better. Actually Caleb takes the common sense approach and just tells people to buy what they like, unfortunately fanboys on both sides of the aisle aren’t happy wich such conclusions and have started debating the finer points of each rifle platform.
Personally I don’t care, I own an AK and two ARs (one in 5.56 and one in .308) and find them both to be great platforms. The fanatical worshipers of each platform have arguments left and right but the most ridiculous one has to be from the pro-AK crowd: that having an AK will be beneficial when the Reds invade the United States because you can pilfer their ammunition and magazines. Why is this argument ridiculous? Because the days of foreign forces possible invading the United States are over. Invasions are expensive, really expensive, and enemies of America are no longer nation states by small groups working from various locations throughout the world. We’re in the fourth generation of warfare and the rules have changed entirely.
Groups wanting to take down the United States aren’t planning invasions, they’re planning on bankrupting the country. Why spend all that money to raise an army, provide logistics, and invade a foreign country when you can build some cheap explosives, bomb a high value civilian structure, and watch the United States go stroming into some country at the cost of trillions? What good is a massive multi-billion dollar aircraft carrier against a fleet of remote controlled speedboats with high explosives attached to them? How is a massive army any good against targets you can’t see because they don’t war identifiable uniforms?
Warfare has changed and we’re not facing an invasion by a military force. China isn’t going to march its army into the United States, devastating our economy is far cheaper and easier. You’re not going to be scavenging ammunition off of dead foreign soldiers (and if you were why not take their gun as well). In this new generation of warfare people should be defending themselves against economic collapse as that is the weapon now wielded by opponents of the United States. Al Qaeda learned how effective slamming a couple of planes into a couple of skyscrapers can be, it stirred the hornests’ nest of the United States military causing a ramping up of the police state at home and the expenditure of trillions abroad.
Technology has effectively made warfare cheap. A behemoth aircraft carrier is filled with some of the most expensive technology on the planet but a fleet of cheap remote controlled speedboats or aircraft and reign destruction down upon the floating fortress. Look what one speedboat did to the USS Cole.
You can debate ergonomics, calibers, and reliability of the AK and AR platforms but stop claiming the utility during a foreign invasion as a cornerstone of AK superiority. That isn’t the threat anymore and even if it were you can guarantee the United States would start drafting civilians into the military and arming them with far more than a semi-automatic knockoff version of a foreign fighting rifle.