Oh, wait, I’m sorry. That’s not the question the NYT is asking. The actual question is:
Where Did All the AK-47s Go?
The collapse of the AK market shows how the buying habits of the country’s large community of firearms enthusiasts can be shaped by geopolitical forces. The causes of the firearm’s disappearance include tariffs, sanctions, rising ammunition prices related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the soaring popularity of the AR-15.
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Overseas firearms manufacturers that supplied AK parts and rifles are now more focused on arming Europeans, fearful of an approaching invasion from Moscow, than on supplying the Americans who once made up a larger portion of their customer base.
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By the early 2000s, AKs from Romanian, Bulgarian, Polish and Russian companies made up a chunk of the market. Rifles imported from Russia remained highly sought after, especially after the Clinton administration’s assault weapons ban expired in 2004. The U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also bolstered the gun’s popularity, as returning service members often favored AKs because of their prevalence in their own combat experiences.
That changed in 2014 with Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its proxy war in eastern Ukraine. The U.S. sanctions on Russian companies that followed effectively banned Russian AKs on the U.S. civilian market.
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There is no specific figure that provides the exact breakdown of the types of rifles, but industry experts point to the price of an AR-15 and its ammunition, compared with the far more expensive AK and its ammunition, as reasons for the rifle’s decline in U.S. markets. Cheap ammunition prices were once a huge driver of demand for the AK.
(Obligatory.)
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