Military conflicts across the world have one thing in common; the weapon commonly used in fighting is the AK47 rifle.

From the  Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia to the M23 rebels in Eastern Congo, this self-trigger, gas operated rifle has found worldwide usage; especially among warlords, drug dealers and other felons.

Whereas it is a great thing to see your product famous world over, Mikhail Kalashnikov — the brain behind the AK 47 rifle — died regretting his invention.

The weapon whose design he commenced 73 years ago when his country — then The Soviet Union was battling the Germans during the Second World War — has years later fallen into the wrong hands and claimed many lives.

Child soldiers and trigger-happy generals have suddenly turned his weapon into a tool of mass slaughter – maiming, killing, overthrowing governments, smuggling minerals and wrecking peaceful states.

Kalashnikov, who died at 94 last year, lost all the pride he had in designing what would be the world’s most famous assault rifle.

His tinge of self-reproach became public in early 2000, even as he tried to shift blame on egocentric world leaders who had turned his rifle into a weapon of mass slaughter.

“It is painful for me to see when criminal elements of all kinds fire from my weapon,” Kalashnikov said in 2008 as reported by BBC reported.

Partly due to the simplicity of the weapon, AK 47 became the easiest rifle to copy and circulate.

Kalashnikov commenced the design of the rifle after he was wounded in a clash between The Soviet Union’s Red Army and the Germans soldiers in October 1941.

While recuperating in hospital, a fellow soldier lamented to him how superior the German weaponry was and wondered “why can’t we manufacture rifles as powerful as the Germans”.

Since its approval by the Russians in 1947 the AK 47 rifle is a respected assault rifle only rivalled by the American M16.

The AK 47 can be dismembered into eight parts. It is also easy to train with; this is perhaps why child soldiers easily brandish the dreaded weapon.

The Guinness Book of World Records also has a documentation of the remarkable work that went into the design of the rifle estimating that there are currently about 100 million such rifles. In all the instances Al-Shabaab gunmen have struck in Kenya, they have been reported to have attacked using AK 47 rifles.

In the three Sudan civil wars (including the current South Sudan conflict) the rifle has been conspicuous among the rebels. The story was the same even in the Sierra-Leone eleven-year civil war between 1991 and 2000 where 50,000 were killed. Feeling the tinge of guilt, Kalashnikov wrote to the Russian Orthodox Church in May 2012 saying he was suffering spiritual pain.

Kalashnikov feared he was to blame for the millions of untold deaths caused by his weapon.

“I keep having the same unsolved question: If my rifle claimed people’s lives, then can it be that I . . . a Christian and an Orthodox believer, was to blame for their deaths?” his letter read in part.

It added: “The longer I live,” he continued, “the more this question drills itself into my brain and the more I wonder why the Lord allowed man to have the devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression.”

The letter was typed on Kalashnikov’s personal writing paper, and was signed with a wavering hand by the man who describes himself as “a slave of God, the designer Mikhail Kalashnikov”, the BBC reported.

Kalashnikov ldied on December 23 last year after suffering internal bleeding after being admitted in hospital for a month.