Last Sunday I was driving back from a range in eastern AL, and the only station I could get on the radio was NPR out of Birmingham. The comedy show I was listening to was actually pretty good, so I kept the station on. After the show they went to "All Things Considered", and did a segment on the AK47.
They interviewed the author of a book on guns who quickly revealed his bias. The reporter asked him for reasons why the AK is so popular, and he said that it's easy to shoot (compared to what?), and will shoot in just about any conditions.
He then went on to describe numbers of production, and the AK's role in global conflicts. The reporter asked why the AK is so often involved in wars in the Third World, and he said it was because of the AK's durability, in that the weapon lasts for decades. This is true for just about any gun except a Lorcin, so he lost me on that one.
The reporter then went on to ask what could be done about the proliferation of this "evil gun" (her words), and if there was a way to stop sales of them throughout the world. The author didn't really have an answer, but did say a lot of things that simply were not true, both from technical standpoints as well as political.
There was more to the story, but I think you get the gist of it. This is the sort of "reporting" that drove me away from NPR years ago, and makes me want it defunded now.