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Teen kills 2 suspected home invaders with shotgun in Channelview: HCSO
HOUSTON – Officials say two would-be home invaders in Channelview were killed overnight Saturday and a third remains at large after they were confronted by a teen inside armed with a shotgun.
According to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, three men in masks tried to break into a home in the 16000 block of 1st St. in east Harris County near Channelview First Baptist Church.
The men were armed and inside the home were a 12-year-old boy and two teenage boys, both 17. One of the 17-year-olds, according to investigators, got a shotgun and fired it several times at the invaders.
Two of them were hit and pronounced dead at the scene by responding officers.
Meanwhile, the third took off in a dark-colored, 4-door sedan, and as of this writing remains at large.
No other injuries were reported, but Sheriff Gonzalez said the case would be presented before a grand jury, as an investigation into the incident remains underway.
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Rigby Falling Blocks
The S&W Model 15 revolver that remains in service, largely as a K9 training tool, can trace its lineage all the way back to the S&W .38 Military and Police Model first issued to service members back in 1899. Now, some 122 years later, this tried and true revolver is finally headed out to pasture in favor of the Defense Department’s new pistol du jour, the Sig Sauer M17 and M18 series. The last remaining Model 15 revolvers in service will likely fire their final rounds by this coming summer, ending an era.
Revolvers are a different kind of cool. The classic sixgun may never be as efficient as an automatic pistol, but it’s tough to argue that they don’t carry a certain mystique. Revolvers have had a place in national militaries for over 200 years, starting with the Colt Dragoon. They were largely phased out of service with the adoption of the M1911, but a shortage of viable service pistols during both World Wars kept these contraptions in the hands of GI’s throughout. Believe it or not, the military has kept a single revolver in its arsenal until, well, very recently.
The Air Force’s Model 15 revolver has served honorably since 1956, and the gun can trace its lineage back to 1899.
Related: The strangest Spec-Ops firearms in SOCOM’s armory
The History of the Model 15
Let’s go back in time, and I mean, let’s start at the M15 and walk backward with it. The M15 was originally known as the K-38 Combat Masterpiece. In fact, the gun wore the K-38 moniker when it saw adoption by the Strategic Air Command Elite Guard of the United States Air Force. This wasn’t an Air Force wide purchase, but for a specific unit who apparently liked a revolver more than the M1911, the K-38 became their piece of preference. I can’t find clear evidence of why, but my assumption would be that the Air Force was likely having a tough time getting M1911s in a post-WW2 and Korean War world.
Why a Revolver?
Smith and Wesson had the K-38 as a COTS, or commercial off the shelf, product. While specialized hardware is great for the warfighter, COTS makes adoption easy. The K-38 gained its name from the medium frame that S&W designated as a K frame, and 38, which stood for the .38 Special caliber round it used. The K-38 then became the M15 when Smith and Wesson moved to number designations entirely.
Let’s keep walking back further. The K-38 Combat Masterpiece descended from the K-38 Target Masterpiece by trimming the barrel and changing the front sight. The K-38 Target Masterpiece became the Model 14, but it’s directly descended from the Smith and Wesson Model 10. The Target Masterpiece added a long six-inch barrel, a slight rib for a level sight plane, a Patridge front sight and a micrometer adjustable rear sight, with a short-throw hammer and an adjustable trigger.
Related: The 5 worst service weapons the US ever issued its troops
Roots in World War II
The K-38 Target Masterpiece’s legacy comes from the famed Model 10. The Model 10 is the classic .38 Special revolver. This six-shot, double-action / single-action design utilized a swing open cylinder and an exposed hammer. The Model 10 premiered after World War 2 and descended from the Victory Model.
The Victory Model by Smith and Wesson was produced from 1942 to 1944. The serial numbers had a V prefix. After a half million of these guns were produced and distributed under lend/lease programs during World War 2. Another 350,000 were produced for use by the United States during WW2.
A really long name
Before the V prefix and the Victory model designation, we had the S&W .38 Military and Police Model. The M&P 38 Special traces its lineage all the way back to 1899. The Army and Navy ordered three thousand S&W .38 Hand Ejector Models that year, chambered in .38 Long Colt. Smith and Wesson cashed in on some easy marketing after this order and renamed the pistol to the Military and Police model.
The 38 Long Colt tended to be anemic, so S&W developed the .38 S&W Special, aka the .38 Special. Over time the Military and Police model had various changes and improvements. So, the famed Model 15 that is still in some armories today descended directly from a revolver that was first fielded in 1899.
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Why the Model 15 revolved has stuck around so long
It worked, and Air Force security forces acted as police officers and worked in rather safe areas. The old M15 revolvers worked well, and they stuck around long after the adoption of the M1911. The M15 served with the U.S. Air Force police from 1962 up until 1992, when the Beretta M9 saw widespread adoption.
1992 is a long way from 2021, however, so why is it still in Air Force Armories? Well, it ties back to the Air Force’s Military Working Dog training program. This program trains K9s and the M15s are used with blanks to accustom the dogs to the sound of gunfire. There Beretta pistols did not have a blank firing adapter, and revolvers simply didn’t need them.
The M15 revolver was an easy choice and a smart financial one. Why replace what works? Well, since these guns have been issued longer than my Dad’s been alive, they are likely getting worn out. Even this long-serving revolver will eventually stop training K9s and have to go the way of Old Yeller itself.
Related: Why the M1 Carbine became an American legend
What’s Replacing the Model 15?
The SIG M17 and M18 series will replace or are in the process of replacing the M15 revolvers across the Air Force. Unlike the M9, these guns will have a blank firing system and will cycle blanks for training purposes. The adoption of the SIG M17 and M18 series will not be complete until August 2022. I doubt there is a huge rush to arm the K9 school, so it’s likely some Model 15s are still in use, or at least still in armories, and may be well into the coming year.
It’s fascinating that the Model 15 stuck around so long and that the design traces its lineage back to the service revolvers of 1899. Has anyone in the comments ever handle an M15 in service? Let us know what you think about it.
U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)-
“Are you going to arm an increasingly tyrannical government deep state takeover seeking to diminish AMERICANS’ CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS and intending to target and abuse your customers?” colleague Dave Licht asks gun manufacturers on my War on Guns Placeholder blog. “Will you keep arming the states and agencies that unconstitutionally restrict your customers from buying your products? Will you keep arming the officers in states that intend to red flag your customers and seize their property purchased from you, without notice, hearing, or due process?”
I created the blog as a supplement for when I get emails that are too long to post in their entirety and have no link for sharing. This allows me to pass along important information by creating a linkable post that can then be posted on other blogs, social media sites, and the like.
Why Do You Keep Arming The States And Agencies That Unconstitutionally Restrict Your Customers?
Lich’s open letter makes an important point: Why would manufacturers want to provide customer disarmament tools to states like New York, California, New Jersey, Hawaii, and others, where politicians are not only trying to shrink the market, ban products and destroy the industry through lawsuits? It’s actually a follow-on post to one he’d sent me a few weeks earlier, wherein he noted:
“I spent this am contacting every gun manufacturer I do business with and asking them to PICK A SIDE and go full Ronnie Barrett on every state and agency presuming to infringe on Heller, Bruen and the Constitution generally. It is time for the industry to stand up for their customers and NOT SELL GUNS TO AGENCIES AND STATES ADOPTING & ENFORCING RED FLAG LAWS and passing rebound statutes to p*** on Bruen.”
Licht’s Ronnie Barrett reference, of course, recalls a 2002 letter the President of Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, sent to then-Chief William J. Bratton of the Los Angeles Police Department, about his company’s .50 caliber rifles:
“I will not sell, nor service, my rifles to those seeking to infringe upon the Constitution and the crystal clear rights it affords individuals to own firearms.”
Barrett again sent similar letters, one to the State of California in 2005, the Honolulu Police Department in 2008, and the State of New York in 2013.
I recounted these and more in my 2018 AmmoLand article, “More in the Firearms Industry Should Follow Hornady’s New York Example,” documenting President Steve Hornady’s announcement saying in part:
“Hornady will not knowingly allow our ammunition to be sold to the State of NY or any NY agencies. Their actions are a blatant and disgusting abuse of office and we won’t be associated with a government that acts like that. They should be ashamed.”
Picking up on Licht’s industry missive around 29 minutes into his August 25 program was Armed American Radio’s Daily Defense host Mark Walters.
Audio Player
“This is interesting stuff, guys,” Walters told his audience. “These questions are brilliantly asked.”
“Is it the individual New Jersey State Police officer’s fault that his state is the way it is and does what it does, and he should be punished simply because he wants to be a New Jersey State cop…?” Walters asked. “But then that gets back to ‘Well, I’m just doing my job…’”
“I would send a letter to those individual officers saying ‘Look, I’m sorry, but because of what your state does, because of your employer’s policies… you will not enforce those laws with my products,’” Walters rhetorically concluded.
His wasn’t the only national “gun rights” program picking up on Licht’s letter.
A caller to Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk brought it up on the Sunday, August 28 program, around 12 minutes into Hour 1. Responding, Gresham brought up an important point concerning what manufacturers can and cannot do by law.
“The thing you’ve got to understand is that the gun companies cannot get together and make that decision,” Gresham noted. “That would be, frankly it would be illegal. The gun companies cannot get together and collude, if you will, to restrict sales.”
He’s correct; that and other points about Licht’s letter were part of a discussion I had with Mark Walters when I joined the program in Hour 1 on August 29. The industry as a whole doing it would lead to federal action. But that still would not preclude companies from doing it independently without coordination or collusion based on customer feedback.
Audio Player
How could enough pressure be generated to get some manufacturers to take notice, so that gun owners could see who would take a stand? That’s something national and state gun groups could take the lead on, at least the ones not afraid to rock the boat.
It’s past time gun manufacturers stopped acting like neutral parties, willing to reap the benefits of RKBA activism as long as they don’t have to take a stand. It’s not inappropriate to publicly ask those companies what their position is, and to favor and patronize those that stand with American gun owners (and publicize those who won’t).
Or, as Licht concludes his open letter:
“So … Manufacturers … whose side are you on? If we don’t hang together, they’ll pick us off one at a time … and America will be lost. PICK A SIDE.”
And, of course, let’s not forget those arming ATF…
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.