How Easy-to-Use Weapons Shaped History: From Crossbows to Kalashnikovs

Weapons have existed as long as humankind. For millennia, they have determined the destiny of generations. Weapons bring suffering and death. They show what humans can inflict upon other humans. But they're also intended to keep the peace and pave new ways for technology. We will present three weapons that have made war history because almost anyone can handle them. Without long hours of training, astonishing experiments will reveal their secrets. The Kalashnikov, a tool for soldiers and terrorists, the most widespread firearm in the world. This is a violent gun to shoot on full-auto. The crossbow, sophisticated engineering for untrained warriors. I've been firing this weapon for years, but still I'm running on adrenaline. And the pike, the wonder weapon against medieval knights. That is very, very intimidating. This weapon is a deadly instrument in the hands of ordinary men against mounted knights. In the Middle Ages and early modern history, it's called a pike. In the Classical era, the long wooden spear is known as sarissa. The Battle of Isis, 333 BCE. Persian King Darius III confronts the Macedonian ruler, Alexander. An uneven showdown, or so it appears. But besides a heavy cavalry and infantry in phalanx formation, Alexander has another ace up his sleeve, very long wooden spears, an invention by Philip II of Macedon, his father. They were using very long pikes, and it was essential that they maintain cohesion and they all fought in the same way. The temptation to put the pike down and fight with the sword had to be resisted. Alexander's troops have undergone intensive sarissa training. Their length alone of about six metres makes the wooden spears a terrifying weapon. Even more so when used in a formation with hundreds of warriors all lined up. In the Battle of Isis, deploying the sarissa pays off for the Macedonians. It enables you to keep the enemy at a distance, and as long as you maintain formation, you can press the enemy backwards. He simply can't get close to you to attack. So you're using your range of action to drive the enemy off the battlefield. Alexander and the Macedonians prevail. Darius loses the battle. The once omnipotent Persian Empire is doomed, a turning point in history. The sarissa remains a characteristic weapon of the Hellenistic world. It's only after the Romans defeat the Macedonians that the long spear falls by the wayside. More than 1,000 years later in the Middle Ages, it is rediscovered and conquers the battlefields again. Nykøbing Falster, Denmark. On the set of a reconstructed medieval village, experts investigate historical technologies and weaponry. The pike is particularly interesting. Weapons expert Mike Lodes has exhaustively examined its changeful success story. The pike's probably one of the simplest weapons ever devised. It's no more than a long pole with a sharp head. On its own, though, it's not a very useful weapon. On its own, as soon as somebody is inside that point, they can attack you and it's clumsy to fight with. But it wasn't used on its own. It was used with thousands of other pikes. It was used in a forest of pikes. A typical pike weighs about six to eight kilograms. The shaft is usually made of ash wood and is several metres long. One end is either sharpened or capped with an iron spearhead. The pike is an extremely long weapon. It had different lengths at different times in history, but it was always used by mass formations. Mike Lodes wants first to show just how easy it is to manufacture a pike. Is it really a weapon that anyone can make? This is so simple. I just took this sapling from the woods outside and all I have to do is strip off the bark. It's got a natural taper and it's really very basic work. Most professional armies used an iron pike head. As the Roman Empire expands, the long wooden spears fade into oblivion. It is not until the Middle Ages that their effect on approaching troops is rediscovered. Scotland, Stirling Bridge. This is where Scottish independence fighters faced the Royal English forces on 11th September 1297. Their leader is William Wallace. Hollywood has immortalised him in the movie Braveheart. The Scots are fighting a seemingly hopeless battle against the heavily armed occupying forces. Many of the Scottish warriors are craftsmen, peasants and small landowners without military skills. Wallace introduces a new combat formation during the independence wars, the chiltron. Up to 2,000 warriors form a spiked shield with their pikes, ready to defend themselves from all sides. Attackers hardly stand a chance of breaking through this shield. As a guerrilla fighter, William Wallace was supreme, but at Stirling Bridge he had to face a massive English army in the field, in pitched battle, and in pitched battle the Scots were the underdogs. They didn't have this full-time trained army, but he had many men who'd flocked to his cause. What he did very quickly was train them to use the pike, the weapon of the common man. Is it really possible to become a pikeman that fast? Mike Lodes conducts an experiment. 15 women and men, complete beginners. Training time, one day. Go, take up your pikes, hold them vertically and reassemble here. Go! Usually, pikes were only deployed by men on the battlefield. In our experiment, we also include women. That was very nice, but it looked like you were in a shoe shop selecting which size was going to fit you. Go, I want you to run at the double and get a pike and get back here. Go and put them back for the moment. Come back here and we start again. At the double, collect your pikes, go! The second round is already better organised. Because of the length of things, very unwieldy while you're trying to carry it. So you've got to keep it in both hands and then be aware of where the end is against any other people or the trees, or I guess you wouldn't want to use it inside because of the roof. When standing, it's very comfortable, but actually getting it up and getting into position is kind of uncomfortable. It's not something I've ever done before. It's a very long stick, I'm a very small person, and it's a bit unwieldy the first time you pick it up. The problem with pike training is to use a pike, you need to be very strong and very fit. This is a long, heavy weapon, and holding it up in its proper position is physically very demanding. Most people today would last about five minutes with a pike before they collapsed. And then to do that while you're marching across the ground, which is broken or perhaps slippery, is very demanding indeed. Three paces forward. One, two, three. To your right, turn. Port your pike, Natasha. Lift it up like everybody else. There's only one. Yes, sir. About turn. No! This is right turn. Yeah. This is about face. About turn. Yes! You look like a machine. All the cogs are in sync and going the right way. You've got to be in a straight line. You are no longer individuals. You are cogs in my machine. Front rank, charge. Good. Rear rank. Your main job is to bring your spears in between. The newly-fledged pikemen in final formation for the first time. It's a bit hard, but I feel strong. I'm a short girl, so when I have a four-metre stick in my hand, it's a bit wobbly. But when you're standing like this, it's actually quite sturdy. So it's good. So you're the Scottish army waiting patiently at Stirling Bridge. I am the English cavalry about to come bearing down on you. Was there enough time to memorise all the sequences and movements? Good job. That is very, very intimidating. Actually imagining this with thousands of other spearbearers, it must be insane for anybody who will charge this. It must be completely insane. By the end, when I was running down at them, that was quite intimidating for me because they were working like one single brain, bringing those up together. There was no one, two, three, four. It was up in one. Thousands of English soldiers lose their lives at the hands of Scottish pikemen on 11th September 1297. For a brief moment, the dream of independence seems to come true. William Wallace remains a Scottish national hero to this day. The secret of the pike's success is not its revolutionary design, but in the effective drill of a military unit. One single pikeman does not stand a chance. A coordinated wall of pikes, however, is hard to defeat. Team spirit is important in many jobs, many walks of life. But the difference in the army is it's a difference between life or death. Team will make them do the job more efficient, quicker and safer. And if they can't rely on their team, they know that that can result in them being killed. So to be able to have trust in your team, to be able to know that you have the team behind you, is absolutely imperative within an army setting. During the Thirty Years' War, three centuries after Wallace's victory, entire books on military drills are published. For example, The Art of Infantry Warfare, by a German writer detailing movement sequences and formations. Over time, drill and training of soldiers reach new heights. For example, in the Prussian armies. Exercising, standing at attention, shooting, for years on end. Thanks to their training, Prussian soldiers rank among the best fighters in the 18th and 19th centuries. Professional armies use drill to maximise their combat effectiveness. The Prussian goose step is a classic example of a drill. Those are not drills for the battlefield, they're drills to instil the cohesion and the synergy between all of the people in that group. They're all doing these difficult things together. When you ask them to do a simple thing, under fire, under stress, on the battlefield, they should be able to do that. Back to the voluntary test pikemen. Now, Mike Lodes will simulate a cavalry attack. Well, I think you all did extremely well. Now we need to test you against the real thing. I think just a stick can give you a fair bit of extra security, particularly if you have no idea what you're doing. If you're completely fresh off the farm, it's something between you and the horse. The formation stays intact. Well, that's a very intimidating sight. Very, very difficult to get a horse through there. You all feel pretty secure, I'm guessing. You all feel pretty safe. Sebastian, you feeling safe? Feeling safe? Yeah, not worried, Nicky? Not worried at all? What's going to happen? Whether they're being attacked by cavalry or by infantry, that pike block is a really devastating military machine. The pikemen's success also brings about social change. Armies grow larger. Instead of a few mounted knights in armour, countless ordinary soldiers are now decisive for the outcomes of battles. The new armies, however, fight no longer for their lords, but for money. The old feudal order breaks apart. The future belongs to mercenaries and national armies. Early modern states, modern states begin to recruit their own people. They could be mercenaries, they could be natives of the country, but they're recruited directly and they're now owned by the state. That changes things. It means that the recruiting pool is widened and you can recruit from areas where there are no knights. It is the dawn of the era of mercenaries who go to battle for whoever pays best. If there is no war or their field commander has gone bankrupt, mercenaries often go from country to country, murdering and plundering. The mercenary system also presents new challenges for army commanders. Many of the mercenaries go to war, bringing along their wives and children, who also need to be fed. The pikemen from Switzerland have quite the reputation during the 15th century. With halberds, an improved version of the pike, they can be deployed offensively as well. Many rulers enlist the help of their own personal Swiss guard and they still provide active support. They are still in service to this day in the Vatican. The legacy of that is that the Pope still has Swiss guardsmen dressed up in 16th-century uniform as his security system. This, on the one hand, is laughable, but on the other hand, it's very practical because you can't miss them. They're very obvious and they do have a halberd, which is quite an unpleasant instrument, even in a blunt one. So the Swiss guard reminds us of an age when mercenary soldiers were a critical part of all armies. It's only after the rise of nation-states and the idea that you actually had a homogenous national army, which is actually quite a modern idea. The pike, a long wooden spear with an iron head. 600 years ago, it caused profound changes on the battlegrounds and brought about the downfall of knights. The pike has left its mark. For a long time, it's an integral part of every soldier's equipment. Nevertheless, it quickly becomes superfluous, as it's replaced by firearms and bayonets. But long before firearms, another easy-to-operate ranged weapon decides the outcome of entire wars, the crossbow. What technical trick makes it so dangerous? Europe in the early 15th century. The Hundred Years' War between France and England is still in full swing. Both sides use the crossbow as a ranged weapon. It turns peasants into warriors in the blink of an eye. In this case, you've got the opportunistic weapon that is easy, it's available, and pretty much anybody can pick up and use it. Therefore, it creates a situation that in any fight, at any given time, it's a weapon that can be used by everyone. Puchberg, Austria, is home to a man who knows the secrets of the medieval crossbow like no other. Andreas Bichler builds and explores historical weapons. Together, we want to investigate how the crossbow revolutionized European battlefields 600 years ago, and even knocked experienced knights from their horses. The craftsmanship of the old classics is just fascinating. Just think about the technical sophistication needed to construct and manufacture such high-tech weapons, especially at that time, at the end of the Middle Ages, in the 15th century. Andreas Bichler works on different crossbow variants based on surviving historical models in his little backyard studio. The basic manufacturing principle is simple. Every crossbow needs a frame called a tiller or stock. Bichler then places a bow onto the stock. This crossbow, a simple model, is made of wood and a waxed yarn string. The crucial detail, however, is the trigger mechanism, with what is known as the roller nut. It is typically made of antler. The nut, this cylindrical pawl, is placed inside a slot within the stock where it can rotate. This was called a lock in the Middle Ages. So, how does it work? The trigger bar, the key, so to speak, attaches to the nut. There's a cavity in the nut for it, and once you put it, the roller nut begins to rotate and the bowstring can be released. This is one of the last steps necessary to finish the crossbow. By winding the rope around like this, you link the bow tightly with the socket. Such simple crossbows could already be mass-manufactured in the Middle Ages. Weight, about three kilograms. Range, up to 300 meters. But they are most effective at a distance of about 80 meters. They were used from an elevated position to equip and defend wall walks or towers. Crossbows were already used in the Middle Ages. They were already used as weapons of war long before medieval times. The oldest ones come from China. In the third century BCE, Chinese states are in the throes of wars until Qin Shi Huangdi annexes them all and goes down in history as the first emperor of China. In 1974, farmers discover his giant mausoleum with a terracotta army. The realistic true-to-life statues provide important insight into the weaponry of the era. The crossbow is an essential part of the standard equipment of the imperial army. It is the first weapon in history to be mass-produced. The elaborate bronze trigger mechanism is cast in standardized moulds, which makes it possible to manufacture hundreds of thousands of them and ensure that they are of the exact same quality. As nations and states get bigger, the armies they deploy get bigger, and the demands they have on their weapons industries expand exponentially. So you're going to have to put a lot of effort not just into the fighting line, but also into the support line. And the attraction of mass-producing weapons is that you can reduce that tail end of the military system. You can produce more weapons with less people. Standardized design, interchangeable parts, these are attractive things when armies get to the size where bespoke, handmade weapons are no longer a relevant issue. The Third Crusade, 1191. A host of Christian knights intends to bring the holy city of Jerusalem under its control. Richard the Lionheart, King of England, is one of the commanders of the crusade. On a military level, he relies mostly on his crossbowmen. They defend the king's armour-clad knights against the troops of Sultan Saladin, who attack with bow and arrow. The crossbow proves superior in close combat. Richard, however, fails to capture Jerusalem. The irony of it all, ten years later, the legendary English king dies after being hit by a crossbow bolt himself. Back in Austria, together with weapons expert Andres Bichler and the twins Fabian and David, we set out to find answers. Is it really that easy to learn to fire a crossbow? And does an untrained shooter fire more accurately than with a bow and arrow? The twins have never fired a weapon before. Who will hit the apple on top of the bust? I don't think I'll hit it. I'm pretty sure I won't hit the apple, maybe the head, but I don't even believe that. Maybe I'll hit the straw around it once. The first shot misses the target. Using a bow and arrow seems far from easy. The following shots are off target as well. Missed it again. Yeah, the first one was the best. And from there, it just went south. It's much harder to aim with the bow because you don't have a lot of time. You can't just wait until you've found the point of aim. It's very exhausting. Now the crossbow in comparison. I've never touched one of these, so I'm a little bit nervous. I don't know what will happen. I would be happy to hit the straw. Will Fabian aim better? The direction was good, next time a little bit lower, but you're aiming well. Bullseye, after only three shots. Try beating that. With training, aiming the crossbow gets easier. You can improve. You look for the point of aim. If you find it, you're able to hit the target. An archer needs a draw weight of up to 75 pounds in order to draw his bow. This is quite challenging for an untrained person. It takes too long and makes it almost impossible to aim well. The crossbow is different. Once it is drawn, the shooters can take as much time as they want before firing it. Over the centuries, the crossbow becomes more refined. The composite structure is a leap forward in terms of efficacy. Composite bows consist of several layers of horn and animal sinew glued together. This technology reaches Europe in the 13th century and renders the already deadly weapon even more perilous. The elaborate manufacturing process helps to exploit the full potential of the different properties and features of the materials. You can bend horn to some extent, but if you bend it too much, it'll break. This is why you need the layers of sinew. Sinew is very flexible, whereas horn can withstand a lot of pressure and can be compressed. This makes them perfect composite materials for bow-jewelry. It was a really innovative invention. A significant downside, however, is that the manufacturing process is very lengthy. It takes one to two years. The bow needs to dry completely before it's fully operational. But the further the crossbow develops, the harder it becomes to draw, until the archer's sheer muscle force alone is no longer sufficient. They now need draw support. Ordinary wooden crossbows don't require an elaborate mechanism. A belt hook is enough. This is the first mechanical draw support for crossbows. A belt hook. The archer puts in two fingers and can then draw the bow with the support of his leg muscles. Such simple mechanisms are not sufficient for the heavy composite crossbow. A crank can offer relief by drawing the string with a cogwheel mechanism. This can take up to one minute per shot. Another option is using smaller cranks or a kind of pulley. With these, I have to draw more, but I need less force to create the tension. This way, I can achieve tension that is five or six times higher than with a manual bow. But can such a heavy composite crossbow penetrate the mail of a knight? We want to find out, using an exact replica. I've been firing this weapon for years, but still, I'm running on adrenaline. You can never completely rule out that something will go wrong. The worst case will be that the string passes over the bolt and seriously hurts the shooter by swinging uncontrollably. A perfect hit. The rings have been destroyed in several places, and the bolt just went down to the feathers, through the textile armour and, of course, the mail. That means we have an estimated penetration depth of about 20 centimetres. An absolutely deadly shot. That is not only due to the extremely heavy draw weight of the crossbow, but also to the way the bolt is formed. It is visibly shorter and thicker than the arrow of a regular bow and has a heavy iron head. The medieval mail coat can no longer protect the knight sufficiently against this weapon. Crossbow bolt injuries are obviously extremely profound injuries because the bolt is designed to penetrate the skin and flesh as deeply as possible, to go straight through the body and different organs. Army doctors have an increasingly difficult time treating these terrible battlefield injuries. They haven't acquired comprehensive anatomic knowledge yet, because dissecting human bodies is still forbidden in the Middle Ages for religious reasons. But treating these lesions urgently requires new surgical strategies. Lombard surgeon Roger Frugardi saves injured people thanks to a very special treatment method. If a bolt cannot be removed manually, he fits it into a crossbow again and catapults it out of the flesh. Painful, yet effective. The surgeons obviously had to intervene on the battlefield, which offered them great insight into the human body. They probably came to understand human anatomy even better than before. They also learnt where extreme caution was needed when removing a foreign object from a man's body. For example, what do I have to watch out for when the object has penetrated a blood vessel? I think all the physicians learnt a great deal from these experiences. Their findings have helped modern surgery. I think they really acquired broad knowledge on the battlefield. Medieval army doctors paved the way for modern surgery. France, the siege of Orléans during the Hundred Years' War. 7th May 1429. Joan of Arc, the legendary peasant girl, leads the French troops to battle. She wants to end the siege of Orléans by the British forces. During the combat, Joan of Arc is wearing armour that does not protect her entire torso. A crossbow bolt hits her in the shoulder, but she survives and leads her soldiers to victory. At the beginning of the 15th century, plate armour becomes increasingly popular as a response to the crossbow. But does it really offer better protection? We want to put it to the test. Just like medieval tradition has it, the chances are slim. If you don't have the perfect angle, that means positioning the weapon at a 90-degree angle. You barely stand a chance of penetrating plate armour. Our test shows a steel plate as thick as three millimetres provides sufficient protection against crossbow bolts. The medieval arms race enters the next round. For at least 200 years, the crossbow is one of the most pivotal weapons on European battlegrounds. But as plate armour is on the rise in the 15th century, crossbows literally hit a war. And the emerging fire weapons eventually put an end to the crossbow era. Our third weapon has achieved international notoriety and is dreaded around the world. It has claimed more victims than nuclear bombs. The Kalashnikov. What is the reason for its bloody success? Why is this rifle the go-to weapon of terrorists? Vietnam, 8th of March, 1965. US strike forces land in Da Nang. Their purpose? To defeat North Vietnam and prevent the entire country from falling into the hands of the Communists. On average, the US soldiers are very young and lack hands-on war experience. But they are excellently equipped, for example with the new and modern assault rifle M16. The North Vietnamese soldiers use Soviet weapons, primarily the AK-47, a Kalashnikov. The Kalashnikov 47 of 1947 is a Soviet interpretation of the Second World War assault rifle developed by the Germans and, to an extent, by the Soviets. It is the most all-round useful piece of hardware of that type ever built. The history of the AK-47 begins in World War II. Russian soldier Mikhail Kalashnikov is seriously injured. After his recovery, he decides to become an arms designer. It is only after the war, in 1947, that he finishes the prototype of the fully automatic assault rifle, hence the name AK-47. In 1949, it becomes the standard weapon of the Russian army. Millions of Kalashnikovs are manufactured. What is it that makes the Kalashnikov a weapon that almost anyone, even untrained individuals, can use to kill? Stephen Bull is a writer and military weapons expert. He takes a closer look at these questions for us. The Kalashnikov consists of around 100 parts, is 90 centimeters long, and weighs just under 4.5 kilograms when loaded. The AK-47 was a revolutionary weapon. The Kalashnikov is a gas-operated rifle. When you pull the trigger, an explosion takes place, and air expands as a result. The explosion causes gas pressure to rise, and part of this is used to reload. The pressure is redirected into the mechanical system, which ejects the old cartridge and reloads a new one. The reliability of a weapon is a crucial factor for the outcome of a war. U.S. soldiers in Vietnam soon notice that their modern M16 does not work well in the swampy forests where humidity is high. The troops of the superpower constantly struggle with jamming and malfunctions. Their opponent's weapon, however, is surprisingly robust. We want to find out if the stories are true. How big is the difference between M16 and Kalashnikov? You have to bear in mind that in a modern war, we're taking cover, going into shell holes, staying low to the ground. Sometimes these are the sort of conditions that a soldier and his weapon will have to put up with. And mud baths like this do form part of modern testing of weapons. The M16, the American standard rifle in Vietnam, is tested first. Now, a magazine. And we're ready to go. The M16 is submerged for 30 seconds. And I think we're ready to bring it out. We create jungle-like conditions for firing the weapon. That is filthy. On a shooting stand, we draw a direct comparison. Will large amounts of dirt affect the functionality of the weapon? The test team is forced to leave the shooting stand for safety reasons. Their weapon could blow up in their faces. Using a rope, they are able to pull the trigger of the M16. Ready? So, here it is. Let's take the magazine off. It's off. So, the magazine is now empty. I'll work the mechanism. It's quite tough. I can hardly move the thing. Nothing. I can't actually work the mechanism. So, this gun would just shoot once and then stop. So, this could be a problem for the soldier on the battlefield. And this certainly was the case for the Americans in Vietnam. Now, we'll test the AK-47 that is said to be more reliable. Is it better suited for fighting in adverse and muddy conditions? Target down the far end. We're behind the metal doors. Are we ready to go? Fire in the hole. Wow. The rope is gone. But the result is good. Yeah, it's cool. In our test, the AK-47 can fire several shots. OK, everything is working. Right. So, the first two bullets have fired correctly. And the third bullet was left in the gun. The only reason for this was that the rope failed, so that the gun would continue to fire perfectly. So, the AK-47 has actually passed this horrible test with flying colors. The reason for this is the way it is built. Intended clearances inside the weapon allow it to withstand exposure to large amounts of dirt. The American assault rifle, the M16, lacks such spaces. The GIs in the Vietnam War have to clean their weapons constantly. Even the slightest amount of debris can disrupt the loading process. Our next experiment. We want to see if it really is that easy to operate a Kalashnikov. We're in the US. Arizona's gun regulations are so lax that we can test the AK-47 even in full automatic mode. I'm going to teach you how to take apart this gun. There's basically four parts you've got to remember. Our test participant, Vivian, has never touched an automatic firearm in her life. Weapons expert Kenton Tucker disassembles it in front of her. Afterwards, Vivian is meant to reassemble the AK-47. Now I have to put it back together. Now you have to put it back together. OK. Vivian only has to put back four components. First, the bolt and the gas piston. Then the carrier spring. And the last piece is the cover. Vivian is successful on her first go. There you go. Got it. Was that hard? No, but dirty. That was your first time? Yeah. Now imagine if you did it about 20 more times, you'd have it down pretty well. You can't really imagine that this is a weapon of war because it's just so dangerous and so easy to take apart at the same time. Anyone can use it. A firearm needs to be reliable, easy to operate and accurate. These are the decisive factors. Together with Kenton Tucker, we want to compare the AK-47 directly to its rival, the American M16. The target, cardboard stand-ups at a distance of 15 metres. The standard magazine capacity of both weapons is 30 rounds. Gone in no time at full automatic fire. Which model will be more accurate? All 30 rounds went into the target, but you'll notice that it's pretty well dispersed. The AK moves around a lot on fully automatic fire. That's 15 metres away. It's OK. Actually, it was kind of hard to control, but it did the job. Well, this is all 30 rounds through an M16. As you can tell, they're grouped tighter, it was easier to control. It's a more precise of a weapon on fully automatic fire. You're all over the place with an AK-47 on fully automatic fire. The M16, it's right where you want it to be. Since the Kalashnikov works with excess energy, there is more recoil compared to the M16. The fact that it's easy to use and very reliable comes at a price, limited accuracy. Now it's Vivian's turn to fire the Kalashnikov. How will she, without any training, handle it? You're light. I'm light. You know, we're not that big. So what you do is you really get your body in front of it. In front? In front of it, because it'll push you back. OK. And you try to hold down on that gun, because it's going to rise up. Just shoot, you know, 12 rounds a second or so. OK, here you go. All right, you can shoot at it at will. What do you think? Well, I'm probably going to get bruises or something. Exactly. Exactly. And I'm shaking. You're shaking? OK, all right. That's the first time you've ever done that, too. Yeah. And I close my eyes. This is a violent gun to shoot on full auto. And you just proved that point. A weapon that's easy to operate. The reason why it's still frequently used in civil wars and in terror attacks. It's everywhere. It's the easiest thing to move, because there are so many of them. It's cheap. It's unbelievably cheap. And if you want a Kalashnikov, wherever you are, it's almost certain you can get one. Guerrilla fighters and terrorists like to show themselves with Kalashnikovs. In January 2001, Osama bin Laden can be seen smiling while testing a new model. The Lebanese Hezbollah militia has immortalised it on its flag, just like the African state of Mozambique, where many still remember the bloodshed of the civil war in the 1970s and 80s. So they turn up in every country on the planet in the hands of the wrong people. They've been the icon of freedom fighters, guerrillas and terrorists for 50 years. It's just not possible to imagine a world without Kalashnikovs. They are as ubiquitous as flies. The Pakistani town of Daraa Adamkhal, close to the Afghan border, is a centre for illegal arms trade, where a perfect replica of a Kalashnikov is cheaper than a smartphone. The counterfeit costs less than 100 US dollars. In Africa, for example, in South Sudan, children use Kalashnikovs, with catastrophic consequences. The use of child soldiers is fundamentally abuse. Children are not programmed to commit such acts of violence. When you give them something like the Kalashnikov, which is a symbol of something so powerful, such a dangerous weapon, depending on the level that the child is at, how long they've been recruited as a soldier, the training that they've been through, it may give them a sense of power, but ultimately, for the majority of children, it will terrify them. Reliable, cheap and easy to operate. The features that make the Kalashnikov the deadliest weapon in the world. Every year, 80,000 people die from AK-47s and their successors. 100 million of these weapons are still circulating. There are no foreseeable ways of reducing the number of weapons. Manufacturers from all industrial nations want to make money in the weapons industry. Bans on exports or raids don't make a difference. Even less so with there being countless illegal replicas of Kalashnikovs. Here, the Turkish police confiscated 120,000 cartridges and dozens of AK-47s from Kurdish rebels. Mikhail Kalashnikov is to this day revered as a national hero in Russia. They even built a memorial for him. Up to his death on the 3rd of December, 2013, he liked to give interviews. Ultimately, it's the Germans' fault that the Kalashnikov exists. If they hadn't started the war, I might have built machines for agricultural purposes. Almost anyone can buy weapons in almost any place in the world. It's especially easy in conflict areas or in the United States. In the future, it could become even less complicated with weapons made in a 3D printer. Construction plans for the Liberator are circulating online. A deadly weapon. Its components can be printed off at home. But of course that's dangerous. But you have to keep in mind that 3D printers are not very precise. You can work to millimetre accuracy, but you won't be able to use these printers for high-precision weapons. One essential element, however, the bolt, can't be printed off yet. And high-quality 3D printers are still expensive. But technology improves at a breathtaking pace, which will make it even harder to control the proliferation of firearms in the future. Will we find other ways of making weapons? Yes. There is no limit to human ingenuity. We just have to ask another question. So, things will change in the future. Weapons so easy to operate that almost anyone can use them to kill. And it might become even easier to get hold of them in the future. An enormous challenge, not only for the authorities.