Surprising Sales Trend for Russian AK-47 Guns - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.

The AK-47 rifle is one of the most popular guns in the world, and the factory in Russia that makes them is surviving primarily on sales to civilians in the United States. The Russian AK-47 is referred to as a Kalashnikov after the man who invented the design of the rifle, and in Izhmash, Russia, the people have been manufacturing them since 1947. The Russian models are in high demand because the Chinese made versions are banned by the federal government who haven’t allowed Chinese made handguns or rifles to be sold in the United States since 1994.

Some estimates say that there are around 100 million AK-47 style rifles that have been produced in the world. Civilian versions of the gun on the market do not shoot multiple rounds with one pull of the trigger like the military models of the guns are capable of doing.

The New York Times reports that the “United States sales of the civilian versions, sold under the brand name Saiga, rose by 50 percent last year.”