Brevard firm pushing sales of its American-made AK-47

PALM BAY, Fla. – Just down the road from a Krispy Krunchy fried chicken store, in a nondescript Brevard County business park, a 60,000-square-foot factory produces about 2,500 AK-47 rifles a month.

The Tampa Bay Times reports that Ulrich "Uli" Wiegand, who started the company called Inter Ordinance Inc., sees a bright future for the American-made version of the Kalashnikov, the classic Soviet-bloc weapon with the iconic banana-shaped ammo magazine.

Wiegand wants to put Florida on the map as the place where the best AKs are made. He wants to double his capacity and workforce, and switch the bulk of his business from consumers to governments.

To reach his goal, Wiegand has invested about $5 million in the plant.