I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that that question would be almost as impossible to answer as the meaning of life. First of all there would have been thousands or millions of them produced since the first and with them being in so many countries (legally or illegally) it would be hard to even put up an estimated figure of how many guns have been made let alone the lives they have taken. They are also a known terrorist weapon of choice (watch the news, Osama don't have an M-16) and who knows how many people they have killed or executed in secret. In typing this answer I have come up with an estimated number of people killed by an AK-47, let's call it "X". The mathematics of this is simpler than it seems... X = too many nuff said

The Russian (but available in English language) website 'Modern Firearms' says on page http://world.guns.ru/assault/as01-e.htm that estimated AK production is about 90 million. The AK has been in use for half a century and can be found worldwide and has been used for both military, police and criminal purposes. How many people has it killed? The question is simply not possible to answer in any practical sense.

It's easier to figure out how many licks it takes to reach the center of a tootsie pop (or any round lollipop) then to figure out the answer to this question. I'd say millions at least. There were 800k killed in the RW Genocide of 1994, and when summing in the rest of the AK-47 killings that's ever happened, it'll easy exceed a million. Moreover, Mr. Cork is right. X = too many for anyone that thinks about this. And asking this question is like asking "How many people have been killed by hammers ever since it was first made?" How long have hammers been around in the first place? Plenty of centuries so we may never know! Too many nonetheless. Even one may be too much, in too many cases.

It may seem for a sensible person that hardly any other sensible person would expect to get the real statistics for the answer. Besides, why Kalashnikov, precisely? Why not, say, err, some other brand - name-it-yourself? (Sorry but am not a spec in weaponry matters.) Why, I don't blurt questions like that... say about Henkel or Messershmitt... their planes bombed to bits the train my relative was a machinist on, and now there are these packs of powder for washing machines with "Henkel" labels on them... Neigh, 'tis "Losk" now in my bathroom... no Germans of any kind.

Ah… the AK-47, arguably the most famous and revered gun of the 20th Century. The response to such a question esp. phrased as such will obviously without a doubt be an inestimable one, but one that could be of great deliberation amongst gun enthusiasts like myself. Furthermore it is a question that is next to impossible to answer, one that only the Great Creator would know the answer to. However, perhaps the more arguable answers may go somewhat like this; The AK-47 itself has in all probability not killed nearly as many people as the bullets that were fired from it have killed… I couldn’t help myself, but I digress, assuming your question really is “How many deaths has the AK and its direct descendants inflicted upon mankind as a direct result of it performing the role of its design since the AK entered service in 1947 (hence the “47”)?” Although standardized in 1947, the Soviets were not able to distribute the AK-47 to soldiers until 1956. Approximately 70 million AK’s in all modifications have been produced throughout the world, Licensed AK’s have been manufactured in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Germany, China, Czech Republic, Poland, Yugoslavia, Finland, Iraq, Egypt, North Korea, Indonesia, Israel and even the USA. Not to mention that many AK have been and are produced without licenses in other countries such as in Afghanistan. The total number of the AK-type rifles made worldwide during the last 50 years is estimated at 90+ millions. In trying to surmise an answer to this question one might assume a few rational fundamentals of the 90+ million produced that; -Not all AK’s produced were acquired for military purposes. A great deal of modern AK’s being manufactured today are not purposed to the theatre of war, and are of the semi-auto civilian type, most likely used for sport only. >Subtract the total non military AK’s add a couple for crime related deaths as well as civilian accidental deaths. -In the mid-1970s, the Soviet Union began replacing their AK-47 rifles with a newer design, the AK-74. However a derivative of the AK-47 a modernized smaller caliber AKM is still being produced in lesser quantities. -The AK saw service with the Soviets in Afghanistan, against the US in Vietnam. The AK also saw blood in most pro-communist fighters such as the Sandinistas, Viet-Cong, Iraq, and Iran most Middle Eastern countries including Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Serbia, Egypt, and every where there are Moslem fundamentalist like the Philippians, and Chechnya, and many other terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Hezbollah. The List could go on and on. >Add the bulk of the damage done here. -Not all 50+ countries that endow the AK-47 have thus been betrothed in warfare. >Subtract the total # AK’s never used in battle, including most Russian cold war issue AK’s that never saw action. -Not all AK’s used in battle have scored kills. >Subtract some percentage here. -Not all Kills have been scored. Add some kills here. -Some kills could possibly be friendly fire incidence. >Add a fraction more. -Some, most likely many AK’s will have scored multiple kills. >Add a bunch more here. -And lastly, the bulk of all AK’s manufactured are most likely not currently in service and are outdated, and/or destroyed. This is just to state that the total quantity does not equal the current total to date. But in all one could only estimate that the total number killed as an utter effect of the AK-47 would be in the Millions and counting. How many more as time moves on? Like wise, another notion might be provoked, how many wounded has the AK inflicted upon the opposition as well as possible friendly fire incidents? Or how many American lives have been taken at the end of this formidable weapon? How man innocent civilians have been murdered? Transversely how many bearers of the AK-47 have been killed by opposition while wielding this weapon? Another might go liker this; what is the lethality of AK’s used in conflict per capita? How many kills were scored per AK issued vs. per M-16 during the Vietnam War? What is the most deadly assault riffle of all time? What Weapon will the New Iraqi Military be issued? Who knows? Many of these questions may not have definitive answers but they will always make for great speculation and debate.

The AK-47 has killed no one. Man is the killer not the gun. Estimate the number of people man has killed and its in the millions if not hundreds of millions. Weapons are just tools. They have no thoughts, feelings or emotions. They cant kill.

Humm lets see, maybe this would sum it up. Have you guys ever seen the movie Lord of War? I'd say its killed more people than Cancer.

Nonody knows, and never will know....

tens of millions...maybe 100s of millions

Obviously, not a single one. Many shooters have used AK-47s to kill, but the gun doesn't shoot itself.

Guns don't kill people. People kill people.