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He made modern warfare possible. But Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the AK-47 rifle which has armed generations of guerrillas worldwide, draws no comfort from the thought as he prepares for his 75th birthday Thursday.
"Whenever I see on television my weapon being used to shoot on the wrong side ... I feel tears in my eyes," Kalashnikov told the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda on Wednesday.
"It's politicians who shoot with our guns," he said.
Gunning for 76th Year
10 November 1994
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