That was the question that ended the briefing given by Insights Training Center. The briefing was based on information gleaned from careful analysis of video footage recovered in Afghanistan. The videos showed al Qaeda personnel training for various terrorist missions in the West. They were dedicated, organized and training for missions designed to result in the deaths of innocent people.
Given the tactics they were practicing, it became apparent that the only hope for survival was for the ersatz victim to rapidly and aggressively take action. If you were armed, use your pistol to "buy" you a better gun, namely a longgun and the guns they tended to utilize were Kalashnikovs.
Hence, the question: "You do know how to run an AK, don't you?"
Having no life, I assumed that the common answer would mirror mine..."Of course!, don't you?" However, it became glaringly apparent, when I introduced an AK into the mix at a range session for some of my colleagues, that running an AK was not the common skill that I expected.
Following this unexpected discovery, I decided to take an AK around to a handful of defensive carbine classes and get an appreciation for this weapon system. What I discovered was that everyone had a system of gunhandling for the M16/AR15 platform but very few had any such system in place for the Kalashnikov. This was due to the reality of not having many of them in training classes as well as, I believe, the perception that the system was inferior and unworkable.
While the AK is a different system and must be run differently than an AR, it does not suffer the handicap that common knowledge would lead us to believe.
[OK, I'm rambling now, so I'll continue this later...

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