Nowadays, there are many people who are against gun violence. They say that guns are bad and always have a negative effect on a person who has been exposed to guns. But what they are talking about is crap. If you own a gun you should be responsible for it and anyway, a lot of gun mishaps happen because of things like blinding someone(with a pellet gun), which could have been controlled by the owner like by learning gun safety and teaching it to people to prevent bad gun related events.

The AK-47 is a very popular gun, appearing in virtually every action movie with terrorists and stuff. Many people know what it is and now, because of a school project about revolutions and stuff that needed gun props for a war, I will teach you how to make a Cardboard AK-47!

Oh yeah, this is my first instructable and rating and offering constructive criticism will really help me. Okay, now let's get started!

Step 1: Planning

One night, I was very bored. I was preparing for school but I noticed from my class schedule that there wasn't going to be school the next day because of some holiday. But our project suddenly crossed my mind. I remembered that I was going to have to go to school tomorrow anyway because we had to shoot a video for a project about revolutions. And my assignment for the project was to make guns and the first thing that came to my mind was an AK-47. (Even though it wasn't going to be invented yet for at least another 80+ years at the time of the revolution (Spanish times in the Philippines.)

After Googling tutorials on how to make cardboard guns, all that came up on the results were a book on how to make an AK-47 out of paper (from the book). I didn't want to buy it so I just drew a life-sized AK-47 based on a picture I printed out. Noticing the contrast of the wood compared to the metal parts on it, I noticed that it could be constructed in sections, which would make everything easier than having to draw the whole AK-47 again and again.

Step 2: What You Need

For this instructable, you need:
*Cardboard, make sure you have a lot. Its really annoying to run out once your already "in" into making your project.
*A Pen knife (Box Cutter)
*A Cutting Mat
*A Ruler( I used a metal one since if you use plastic or wood, sometimes, the cutter slices them, rendering them useless for very precise applications)
*Scissors
*Pencil (sharpened of course.)
*Glue gun
*Glue sticks that are compatible with the glue gun
*Time and patience

Step 3: Drawing It

Get your cardboard and draw a life sized replica of an AK-47(without all the other details like triggers).
Based on http://www.ak-47.us/AK-47info.php , an AK-47 is 870mm long so just base it on that.

Step 4: Get the Parts

From your drawing based on a picture from the internet(like this one) or a book or something, cut out the parts individually, (Barrel, handle thing, banana magazine, the big long part, the grip and the stock) and clean it up by smoothing off rough edges and stuff like that.

Step 5: Cloning Process!

From the parts you cut up and cleaned up from your life sized drawing on cardboard of an AK-47, you will now use them to make the gun have some thickness.

WARNING: DO NOT glue these original parts to the gun unless you don't want to make another AK-47 without drawing another life sized copy. Save them if you want to make another AK-47 so you can just trace them.

Get your board and place the stock thing on top of it.
Trace it several times making sure to use enough of the cardboard so you don't waste any.
Recommended number of layers(layers of cardboard): 6

Repeat for all the other parts:
Long part
Recommended number of layers(layers of cardboard): 5
Banana
Recommended number of layers(layers of cardboard): 4
Handle thing
Recommended number of layers(layers of cardboard): 7
Grip
Recommended number of layers(layers of cardboard): 5
Barrel
Recommended number of layers(layers of cardboard): 3

Step 6: Glueing

Now that you have all the parts together, with the glue gun, glue each part you cut individually on top of the other.
After make sure to seal up the sides well so it won't break when handled.

Now after about 10 minutes, glue the stock to the long part.
Now, in order, here is how you should glue them to the long part so the they won't get messed up easily (they won't get bent or folded when gluing other parts)
Glue the Handle to the long part
Glue the Banana to the bottom of the long part
Glue the Grip to the long part
Glue the Barrel to the long part.

Wait for it to dry for like 15 minutes.
In the next step, we will make the trigger.

Step 7: The Trigger and the Trigger Guard

Get a thin but long(ish) piece of cardboard. Squish it between your fingers to flatten it a bit.
This will be the trigger guard. Don't make the length exact so you can actually glue it to the grip thing and the bottom of the long part. Anyway now, Glue it to the grip thing, folding it a little so there is some support.

Make a trigger, just a piece of cardboard shaped like a half crescent. Glue it to the bottom of the long part right before it meets the trigger guard. When it is dry, glue the rest of the trigger guard to the long part.

Step 8: Cleaning Up and Trimming

Wait for a few minutes so the glue dries before trimming the bad cuts and the weird fuzzy parts of the cardboard gun. Glue in weak parts like the parts which are thin and reinforce them with a bit of board to make them more sturdy.

Step 9: Add Details

Okay. Now I know that my AK-47 doesn't have much detail but my excuse is that I had to sleep already because my parents told me to because they have to wake me up early because I had to go to school. And, I had a blurry picture but now that I have found this picture, you can decorate your Cardboard AK-47 with safeties and stuff to make it seem more realistic.

Step 10: Do Something With It

I used it for a project and I'm going to display it on some wall or something. You can decorate it or paint it realistically or even burn it. Or you can even make a lot of them, sell them and make money, or have a fake war. Its up to you.

Watch out for my next instructable and don't forget to comment and rate! Thanks for reading! :)