Mikhail Kalashnikov (10 November 1919-23 December 2013) has passed away at the age of 94 in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia republic in Russia. During World War II when Kalashnikov was recovering in a hospital bed, he started work on an automatic rifle design. He won a weapons design contest, eventually resulting in the production of the AK-47 rifle, the iconic weapon of choice for millions of soldiers, revolutionaries, and warlords for over half a century. The highly romanticized AK has received shout-outs on African flags and in Tarantino films, while varying estimates show that every year tens of thousands of deaths come from the business end of a Kalashnikov rifle, predominantly in conflict zones like Syria.