A US airman has been charged with obstruction of justice and involuntary manslaughter in connection with a fatal firearm discharge at an Air Force base in July, which resulted in the death of a 21-year-old service member.
The on-duty incident, which killed Airman Brayden Lovan, occurred in the early morning hours of July 20 at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. Few details have been provided about the firearm discharge, though the Air Force said at the time that it was under investigation and out of abundance of caution security forces were conducting “100% inspections of the M18 handguns to identify immediate safety concerns.”
An Air Force spokesperson said in a statement on Friday that the investigation “has progressed and an individual has now been arrested on suspicion of making a false official statement, obstruction of justice, and involuntary manslaughter.”
“As with all individuals accused of a crime, the person arrested in this case is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law,” the spokesperson said. “The investigation in this case is ongoing and further details are not available.”
The U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command has paused the use of a handgun following the death of a Security Forces airman at a base in Wyoming.
The use of the M18 pistol, a variant of another gun that has been the target of lawsuits over unintentional discharge allegations, was paused Monday “until further notice” following the “tragic incident” Sunday at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, the command said in a statement. Security Forces airmen at all command bases “will conduct 100% inspections of the M18 handguns to identify any immediate safety concerns,” it said.
The airman killed was Brayden Lovan, 21, of the 90th Security Forces Squadron, 90th Missile Wing at the base, where he began his first active-duty assignment in November 2023, base officials said Thursday.
Details of what happened are not being released pending an investigation, said Lt. Raegan Lockhart, public affairs officer for the 90th Missile Wing. How long the investigation might take isn’t known, Lockhart added. …
The gun is made by New Hampshire-based manufacturer Sig Sauer, which is defending itself against multiple lawsuits alleging that its popular related gun, the P320 pistol, can go off without the trigger being pulled. Sig Sauer denies the claims, saying the P320 is safe and the problem is user error. It has prevailed in some cases.
“Our hearts are with the service members and families impacted by the recent reported event at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base,” Sig Sauer said Wednesday in a statement posted on Facebook.
The P320 was adopted by the U.S. military as M17 and M18 pistols, and the M18 is now the official sidearm of all branches of the U.S. military, Sig Sauer says on its website. In 2019, Sig Sauer announced it had delivered its 100,000th M17 and M18s to the U.S. military.
The pause is so far limited to the Global Strike Command, which includes more than 33,700 airmen and civilians. The rest of the Air Force and the other armed services have not announced any orders to avoid using the pistols. …
The P320 was introduced in 2014. Sig Sauer offered a “voluntary upgrade” in 2017 to reduce the weight of the trigger, among other features. Lawyers for people who have sued the gunmaker, many of them law enforcement officers, say the upgrade did not stop unintentional discharges.
Earlier this year, Sig Sauer appealed a ban of the P320, M17 and M18 pistols by the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, arguing that it appears to be based on inaccurate and incomplete information. The commission banned the weapons after a recruit said his P320 discharged while he was drawing it, even though his finger was not on the trigger.
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“More than a hundred uncommanded discharges reported.”
In 1966, the Royal Navy buried a .303 Short Magazine Lee Enfield No. 4, in service since 1895, with full military honors at Bisley, England, to mark the end of the venerable rifle’s service. A piper played a lament while cartridges were scattered over the white ensign-draped coffin. The end of the long career of the SMLE resulted from its replacement by the L1A1 SLR as the standard service rifle. The British Army had replaced the SMLE in 1958.
I thought I knew almost everything about guns, but reading Louis L’Amour’s short story “Mistakes Can Kill You” in the collection West of the Tularosa, I was rather astonished to find Johnny O’Day surviving the gloating of the villainous Loss Degner, who confesses his crimes and expresses the intention of cold-bloodedly gunning Johnny down at his leisure, since Johnny has just fired six times winning a shootout with two of Degner’s henchmen.
Johnny responds by putting three rounds into Degner’s chest, telling him:
“This ain’t a six-shooter. It’s a Walch twelve-shot Navy gun, thirty-six caliber. She’s right handy, Loss, and it only goes to show you shouldn’t jump to conclusions.”
The 12-shot Walch is one of the more rare American percussion revolvers. Patented in 1859 by John Walch of New York City, only 200-300 were reportedly manufactured by Walch Firearms & Co. Walch contracted the production to the Union Knife Company in Naugatuck, Conn., as he did not own production facilities.
The Navy designation suggests it was purchased by this branch of the service – it wasn’t – but because the Navy favored .36 caliber martial revolvers.
The Walch had a 6-chambered cylinder with each chamber taking a stacked double load. The mechanism of the Walch Navy Revolver was unique, with two nipples per chamber and two hammers to fire them, along with two triggers to do so. This invention is at the core of Walch’s patent.
In practice, the shooter pulled the right trigger first to fire the front charge, then the second trigger to fire the rear charge. If the shooter was not paying attention and pulled the wrong sequence of triggers, the ignition of the rear charge before the front charge was previously fired from the front of the cylinder, and mayhem would ensue. As firearms collectors have seen many times, the invention of a better mousetrap does not necessarily mean so. Certainly, the lack of acceptance of the Walch Navy Revolver for the above reasons contributed to its limited production.
Speaking technically, if the Colt letter in the lower photo pertains to this revolver, it is a “Frontier Sixshooter” chambered in .44 WCF (Winchester Centerfire) also known as .44-40 Winchester. This revolver would, if that were the case, take the same round as its owner’s Winchester Model 1873 (or Model 1892), making it convenient to need only to carry one type of cartridge for both rifle and pistol. The serial number indicates it was made in 1898.
Found in John Alden’s house, built in 1653 using material from an earlier house erected in 1632, at 105 Alden Street in Duxbury, Massachusetts “in a secret protective cubbyhole near the front door of the home” during a 1924 renovation, this wheel-lock bears makers’ marks on the lock and barrel indicating it was made by the Beretta, family of Brescia, Italy, known to have been in business since 1526.
It is the only firearm brought over on the Mayflower known to have survived and it is preserved today in the collection of the National Firearms Museum operated by the NRA.
This is the standard against which all national food is gauged. You better be nicer than this if you don’t want to be looked down on. It’s a lot of people’s first experience with eating out. And to be perfectly frank, they have a HIGH standard of quality control that is nearly unparalleled. A McDouble you buy in Tulsa, OK tastes exactly like the one you could eat in Chicago, IL and that one will be indistinguishable from the one you buy in Berlin, Germany. Maybe you can’t stunt on your friends by taking them here, but damnit it does it’s job well and it does it every time. And it does a wider range of things well than most restaurants could hope to balance. From pancakes, to hamburgers, to fried chicken, salads in a big cup, fish, sometimes they have a McRib, and it’s all pretty good. REALLY good for what you’re paying for it. They never really innovate, they wait and see what other chains are having success doing and then copy them (that Crispy Chicken Sandwich tastes a lot like Chick Fil A don’t it…) but when they add something to their menu it is good to go and it is guaranteed to be up to their standards. Maybe customer service could use some work.
As you know, I am a big fan of the Colt and Smith and Wesson 1917 .45 ACP revolvers and all their modern derivations. You’ve read my scribblings (or tappings?) here on the ExNotes blog about the virtually new 1917 Colt I scored a couple of years ago, and you know I’m not above bragging about a group or two I’ve shot with my Model 625 Smith. You can read all about that sort of thing on our Tales of the Gun page.
Anyway, to get back to the main attraction (which is the beautiful nickel-plated and engraved 1917 you see here), a few years ago I bought a very cool Marlin from Collectors Firearms in Houston, Texas. They are good people and as luck would have it, I had a secret mission in Houston a week ago. Hmmm, I thought. As long as I was headed to the Lone Star state it might be a good idea to stop in at Collectors, and before we left the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia I went online to see what Collectors had in stock. That’s when the revolver in these photos appeared.
Wow! My life suddenly somehow felt incomplete. I needed that revolver. Nickel plating. Engraving. Ivory grips. .45 ACP. An Army 1917. Want. Need. Gotta have. I was a dog in heat.
I studied the photos, of which there were many, and I noticed the following on the revolver’s frame:
General Rodolfo Fierro. Who the hell was he? So I Googled the name, and wow, what a mean bastard he was. Turns out old Rodolfo was Pancho Villa’s darker side, and he was the one who handled the dirty work for Villa. I won’t belabor all his dastardly deeds (you can Google the name yourself), but as dastardly bastards go, this guy was as bad as it gets.
But wow, the gun was a 1917 Colt (a favorite), it was highly engraved, it was advertised as being in good shape, and I wanted it. At $4950, the price was way out of my range. But the provenance…the provenance of this Colt was incredible. …
By any reasonable measure, Rodolfo Fierro was a world class SOB. I know it’s not nice to speak ill of the dead, but old Rodolfo shucked this mortal coil more than a hundred years ago and I’m going to take a chance. Bear with me.
As you know, I am a big fan of the Colt and Smith and Wesson 1917 .45 ACP revolvers and all their modern derivations. You’ve read my scribblings (or tappings?) here on the ExNotes blog about the virtually new 1917 Colt I scored a couple of years ago, and you know I’m not above bragging about a group or two I’ve shot with my Model 625 Smith. You can read all about that sort of thing on our Tales of the Gun page.
Anyway, to get back to the main attraction (which is the beautiful nickel-plated and engraved 1917 you see here), a few years ago I bought a very cool Marlin from Collectors Firearms in Houston, Texas. They are good people and as luck would have it, I had a secret mission in Houston a week ago. Hmmm, I thought. As long as I was headed to the Lone Star state it might be a good idea to stop in at Collectors, and before we left the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia I went online to see what Collectors had in stock. That’s when the revolver in these photos appeared.
Wow! My life suddenly somehow felt incomplete. I needed that revolver. Nickel plating. Engraving. Ivory grips. .45 ACP. An Army 1917. Want. Need. Gotta have. I was a dog in heat.
I studied the photos, of which there were many, and I noticed the following on the revolver’s frame:
General Rodolfo Fierro. Who the hell was he? So I Googled the name, and wow, what a mean bastard he was. Turns out old Rodolfo was Pancho Villa’s darker side, and he was the one who handled the dirty work for Villa. I won’t belabor all his dastardly deeds (you can Google the name yourself), but as dastardly bastards go, this guy was as bad as it gets.
But wow, the gun was a 1917 Colt (a favorite), it was highly engraved, it was advertised as being in good shape, and I wanted it. At $4950, the price was way out of my range. But the provenance…the provenance of this Colt was incredible.
Colt 1917 .45 ACP caliber revolver. Beautifully engraved and chiseled Colt .45 ACP revolver. This revolver is extensively engraved with traditional Colt style scroll work. The right-side of the frame has a relief chiseled figure of the Mexican Seal of an eagle and snake with cactus in the foreground. The left-side of frame is a relief chiseled figure of a puma braced on a rock. Bore is excellent. Action works perfectly. Barrel length is 5½”. The grips are of old mellow ivory. The backstrap is engraved “Gral Rodolfo Fierro” AKA “The Butcher.” Fierro was a known associate of Pancho Villa. Revolver has 100% of its nickel finish. Barrel has a relief chiseled figure of a longhorn steer. Very handsome and striking revolver!
