User Panel
Posted: 5/23/2023 6:04:37 AM EDT
Is this true?
One of America’s most popular handguns is allegedly firing on its own, leaving dozens of cops injured: suit One of America’s most popular guns is a “ticking time bomb” that allegedly fires spontaneously and has injured dozens of cops. The SIG Sauer P320 semi-automatic handgun is used by some 1,000 law enforcement agencies from the local to the federal level, as well as being a popular civilian purchase. But its manufacturer is facing a slew of lawsuits alleging that it can fire even when holstered, even when the trigger isn’t pulled, and even when it is just sitting at rest, lawyers allege. According to the suits against SIG Sauer, some 150 people claim to have suffered injuries, or frightening near misses, when their department-issued P320 went off on its own. One law enforcement source told The Post, “The P320 isn’t just a gun, it’s a ticking time bomb.” And one of the attorneys handling the many cases calls the P320 “America’s most dangerously defective gun.” The Sig Sauer company, based in Newington, New Hampshire, did not respond to requests for comment. The cases center on the P320 not having an external manual safety, known as a tab trigger. Attorneys bringing the cases say it is a crucial design flaw that makes the gun liable to fire spontaneously, with disastrous consequences. They say that although nobody has been killed, many have been injured. Those include Sgt. Ashley Catatao, 35, a single mother of a young son and an officer in the Somerville, Mass., Police Department. The 12-year veteran was beginning a typical night shift patrol — 4 p.m. to midnight — in the sector cruiser on April 6, 2022, as the third-most senior officer on the block. She parked her car and walked toward her cruiser, “when I heard a loud bang and I felt this sharp pain in my upper right thigh,” she told The Post. Attached File Her immediate thought was, “’Someone has shot me,’ and I tried to run for cover, and as I started to run, I looked down and I saw that there was a hole in my pants.” But there was nobody trying to gun her down: Instead, she had been wounded from a bullet fired from her holstered service gun, a SIG Sauer P320. “I never would have expected that my own gun would go off and shoot me,” she said. The startling episode was captured in black and white video by a police security camera that overlooked the lot. Sgt. Michael Colwell was 31, with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, when he went through the police academy in 2009 and joined the Troy, New York, Police Department. His uncle was a retired K9 officer and always had great law enforcement stories to tell, so “police work was something I was kind of interested in, and I decided to give it a shot,” Colwell told The Post. Attached File At the academy, he scored well, even winning an award for his shooting skill. “That was pretty neat to get that recognition,” he says, “to have that accolade.” He was always a “patrol guy” and was promoted to sergeant in 2015. And in all that time, he had never shot anyone or been shot at. That is until June 2, 2021, on the range when he was shot, like Catatao, by his SIG Sauer P320. “I had holstered my duty weapon, tucked it away when we heard a pop. We knew it was a gun that went off and we didn’t know if it was another officer participating in the [range practice] scenario,” he said. “The next thing, the firearms instructor who was monitoring looked at me and said, ‘Is that your gun? Are you hit?’ “I didn’t know. And then with disbelief and adrenaline rushing through me, I realized that a bullet kind of came crushing through my leg, and sure enough, there was a hole in my pants and that’s when the reality and panic set in on my part because the hole wasn’t there when I started the day.” Catatao and Colwell are just two of the 82 cases, most of them involving law enforcement, being brought by personal injury attorney Robert Zimmerman, with the Philadelphia law firm Saltz Mongeluzzi Barrett and Bendesky. He has filed 52 cases and another 30 are being prepared. More at link. |
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“I had holstered my duty weapon, tucked it away when we heard a pop."
There is always more to the story, like what hooked the trigger as it was holstered. A finger, shirt, jacket, something that was inside the trigger guard as it was pushed into the holster. |
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Quoted: “I had holstered my duty weapon, tucked it away when we heard a pop." There is always more to the story, like what hooked the trigger as it was holstered. A finger, shirt, jacket, something that was inside the trigger guard as it was pushed into the holster. View Quote Or in this case they were just carrying a shitty p320 |
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Shitty holsters and poor wpns handling.
The .mil carries them worldwide daily with no problems. The USAF doesn’t use the safety so don’t state that is a difference. |
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There's a video of a plain clothes police officer getting out is a car and his p320 fires. It's not a high quality video but the guy just exits the back of a car and his holstered gun fires
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Hasn't this been discussed in the dozens of other p320 threads?
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Has a single 320 that’s claimed to have just gone off ever been able to have the issue replicated?
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If you like Sig firearms you better buy them now because they many not survive the coming law suits.
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Quoted: If you like Sig firearms you better buy them now because they many not survive the coming law suits. View Quote I'm largely convinced this is a holster issue. In the Safariland duty holsters, when paired with a light, the trigger is accessible on the P320. Not easily, but it appears repeatable. |
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Quoted: Had a single 320 that's claimed to have just gone off ever been able to have the issue replicated? View Quote Let's not ignore the drop safety failures when they were first released. Drop safeties were perfected in revolvers eons ago, so do not act like this was some new technology they were implementing. |
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Quoted: If you like Sig firearms you better buy them now because they many not survive the coming law suits. View Quote They'll survive this. I'm sure they have a great legal dept. And obviously they have greased some palms in the military hierarchy. Their profits on the 320 alone will probably cover it. Fight Club - The Recall Coordinator's Formula |
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Ah yes, the SiG 320.
Giving police the reason to shout "Stop, or I'll shoot myself!"........... |
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Quoted: According to the lawsuit, about 100 of them. Let's not ignore the drop safety failures when they were first released. Drop safeties were perfected in revolvers eons ago, so do not act like this was some new technology they were implementing. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Had a single 320 that's claimed to have just gone off ever been able to have the issue replicated? Let's not ignore the drop safety failures when they were first released. Drop safeties were perfected in revolvers eons ago, so do not act like this was some new technology they were implementing. Kinda like the manual safety that was also perfected over 100 years ago that for some reason appear to be going out of style now. |
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Move over Glock leg, SIG leg is going to take over the future!
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I don't know the design. Does it have an internal safety that prevents forward movement of the striker?
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The important question is why are all these municipal police departments having issues where Texas DPS has purchased over 4000 P320's, of which 2800 are carried by uniformed Troopers, and no issues?
I keep repeating myself. The P320 will not fire without the trigger being pulled. Even the pre-2017 guns technically do not fire without a trigger pull as those discharges were the result of a drop at a specific angle that caused the trigger to cycle at impact. I have no doubts the guns are firing but believe it's a combination of negligence and inattentiveness. The short, light trigger combined with the lack of a trigger safety means the P320 is intolerant of stupidity. The trigger can be pulled quite easily with a side load. The Glock trigger safety pretty much eliminates the possibility of anything rubbing the side of the trigger causing it to cycle. M&P's with the hinged trigger can be fired with a side load if it's applied on the lower half of the trigger, however the trigger is heavier and has quite a bit more take up. Quoted: There's a video of a plain clothes police officer getting out is a car and his p320 fires. It's not a high quality video but the guy just exits the back of a car and his holstered gun fires View Quote Yeah that dude with the poofy clothing around his waist and an unknown holster. The use of a quality holster is required and we all know detectives that like to run various crap holsters because they have to buy them personally and are cheap. Reholstering needs to be done with clothing clear of the holster to eliminate this. Quoted: I don't know the design. Does it have an internal safety that prevents forward movement of the striker? View Quote There is a striker block that is deactivated by the trigger when pulled. |
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A negligent discharge is a serious policy violation and can result in significant discipline to include termination.
Therefore the pistol just went off by itself. |
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Quoted: There's a video of a plain clothes police officer getting out is a car and his p320 fires. It's not a high quality video but the guy just exits the back of a car and his holstered gun fires View Quote If you're talking about the Milwaukee one in Jan 2021, it's pretty clear that he had something, either the seatbelt or clothing, in the holster. The gun goes off as he's getting out and goes flying up and out of the holster. He was using a kydex pancake that exposed the trigger. |
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I think the trigger guard is too thin. It's almost the width of the trigger at the base. My guess is some of these holsters that retain in the trigger guard area are getting the trigger right to the wall of firing when holstered.
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Two cops get shot in the leg by their own firearm and don't even realize it. Says a lot about 9mm, eh?
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Lots of folks here seem emotionally invested in these stories not being true.
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That’s the entire reason I steered away from Sig when purchasing a 10mm.
I went with a M2.0 instead. |
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Quoted: According to the lawsuit, about 100 of them. Let's not ignore the drop safety failures when they were first released. Drop safeties were perfected in revolvers eons ago, so do not act like this was some new technology they were implementing. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Had a single 320 that's claimed to have just gone off ever been able to have the issue replicated? Let's not ignore the drop safety failures when they were first released. Drop safeties were perfected in revolvers eons ago, so do not act like this was some new technology they were implementing. I’m not asking if 100 people claimed their Sigs went off. I’m asking is a single Sig that’s claimed to have went off has ever been able to replicate the issue. That’s a very important difference. |
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Quoted: The important question is why are all these municipal police departments having issues where Texas DPS has purchased over 4000 P320's, of which 2800 are carried by uniformed Troopers, and no issues? I keep repeating myself. The P320 will not fire without the trigger being pulled. Even the pre-2017 guns technically do not fire without a trigger pull as those discharges were the result of a drop at a specific angle that caused the trigger to cycle at impact. I have no doubts the guns are firing but believe it's a combination of negligence and inattentiveness. The short, light trigger combined with the lack of a trigger safety means the P320 is intolerant of stupidity. The trigger can be pulled quite easily with a side load. The Glock trigger safety pretty much eliminates the possibility of anything rubbing the side of the trigger causing it to cycle. M&P's with the hinged trigger can be fired with a side load if it's applied on the lower half of the trigger, however the trigger is heavier and has quite a bit more take up. View Quote All of this. We can argue if there are bad design decisions in the 320 that contribute to easier accidental discharges (and I would say there are) but the gun doesn’t just go bang cuz it’s marching to the beat of its own drummer. Something is in the trigger guard when it goes off. |
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I hate SIG, so I believe every negative story about them!
Did I tell you how much I love Glocks? |
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Quoted: I’m not asking if 100 people claimed their Sigs went off. I’m asking is a single Sig that’s claimed to have went off has ever been able to replicate the issue. That’s a very important difference. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Had a single 320 that's claimed to have just gone off ever been able to have the issue replicated? Let's not ignore the drop safety failures when they were first released. Drop safeties were perfected in revolvers eons ago, so do not act like this was some new technology they were implementing. I’m not asking if 100 people claimed their Sigs went off. I’m asking is a single Sig that’s claimed to have went off has ever been able to replicate the issue. That’s a very important difference. If a guntuber was able to replicate the failure, the video would have millions of views and be posted 10 times a day in GD.....just like what happened with the drop safety issue. It hasn't happened yet. |
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I had a P320 for a while and went back to my LEM trigger P30 because I don't want shot in the dick and it's a superior design.
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In the article they site no trigger tab safety being the problem. Ok so which is it? Did it spontaneously fire or was the trigger pulled.
Also doesn't Sig offer the 320 in both a safety and non safety version? Also why aren't NDs happening left and right at the Sig Academy? I've been there many times and never heard of or saw anyone have an ND which seems odd because their class loaner guns are pretty beat to shit and used every day. |
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Quoted: The important question is why are all these municipal police departments having issues where Texas DPS has purchased over 4000 P320's, of which 2800 are carried by uniformed Troopers, and no issues? I keep repeating myself. The P320 will not fire without the trigger being pulled. Even the pre-2017 guns technically do not fire without a trigger pull as those discharges were the result of a drop at a specific angle that caused the trigger to cycle at impact. I have no doubts the guns are firing but believe it's a combination of negligence and inattentiveness. The short, light trigger combined with the lack of a trigger safety means the P320 is intolerant of stupidity. The trigger can be pulled quite easily with a side load. The Glock trigger safety pretty much eliminates the possibility of anything rubbing the side of the trigger causing it to cycle. M&P's with the hinged trigger can be fired with a side load if it's applied on the lower half of the trigger, however the trigger is heavier and has quite a bit more take up. Yeah that dude with the poofy clothing around his waist and an unknown holster. The use of a quality holster is required and we all know detectives that like to run various crap holsters because they have to buy them personally and are cheap. Reholstering needs to be done with clothing clear of the holster to eliminate this. There is a striker block that is deactivated by the trigger when pulled. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: The important question is why are all these municipal police departments having issues where Texas DPS has purchased over 4000 P320's, of which 2800 are carried by uniformed Troopers, and no issues? I keep repeating myself. The P320 will not fire without the trigger being pulled. Even the pre-2017 guns technically do not fire without a trigger pull as those discharges were the result of a drop at a specific angle that caused the trigger to cycle at impact. I have no doubts the guns are firing but believe it's a combination of negligence and inattentiveness. The short, light trigger combined with the lack of a trigger safety means the P320 is intolerant of stupidity. The trigger can be pulled quite easily with a side load. The Glock trigger safety pretty much eliminates the possibility of anything rubbing the side of the trigger causing it to cycle. M&P's with the hinged trigger can be fired with a side load if it's applied on the lower half of the trigger, however the trigger is heavier and has quite a bit more take up. Quoted: There's a video of a plain clothes police officer getting out is a car and his p320 fires. It's not a high quality video but the guy just exits the back of a car and his holstered gun fires Yeah that dude with the poofy clothing around his waist and an unknown holster. The use of a quality holster is required and we all know detectives that like to run various crap holsters because they have to buy them personally and are cheap. Reholstering needs to be done with clothing clear of the holster to eliminate this. Quoted: I don't know the design. Does it have an internal safety that prevents forward movement of the striker? There is a striker block that is deactivated by the trigger when pulled. I personally know a DPS officer who had one discharge in the holster. |
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