AK-47 vs. M-16

Found this interesting:

...I realized that you might learn as much about a culture from its weaponry as you could from its literature.

As Custer demonstrated, while stripping the AK-47 down to its constituent parts, it was a rifle designed for use by fifteen-year-old illterates whose life was valued cheaply by the designer. "Illiterates won't clean a gun, or at least not meticulously, so the parts are measured to fit loosely. That way the gun won't jam when it's filthy with grime. But it also makes the AK-47 less accurate than out M-16s and M-4s, which have tight-fitting parts and must be constantly cleaned. And because illiterate peasants aim less precisely," he continued, "the level of the AK-47 goes from safety directly to full automatic, for spraying a field with fire. With our rifles, the level rests on semi-automatic before it goes to full auto."

The sites on the Russian rifle could not be adjusted for greater accuracy, unlike on American rifles. The Kalashnikov had a bullet magazine that had to be gripped before it could be released, so it wouldn't be lost in the dirt, because magazines were dear in the old U.S.S.R. That made changing magazines slower, and thus further endangered the life of the soldier in combat. In the old Soviet Union, soldiers were more easily expendable than bullet magazines. By contrast, American magazines dropped onto the ground and could be lost, but it made for a faster, more fluent performance by the rifleman.

From Imperial Grunts.