One of America’s most popular guns is a “ticking time bomb” that allegedly fires spontaneously and has injured dozens of cops, according to a lawsuit.
The SIG Sauer P320 semi-automatic handgun is used by over 1,000 law enforcement agencies from the local to the federal level and is a popular civilian purchase. The pistol is also known as the M17/M18 and has replaced the Beretta 92 as the primary sidearm of the U.S. Military.
Now its manufacturer SIG Sauer of New Hampshire is facing several lawsuits alleging that it can fire when holstered when the trigger isn’t pulled and when it is just sitting at rest, lawyers allege.
Subscribe to Florida Jolt Newsletter!
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 of the attorneys handling the many cases calls the P320 “America’s most dangerously defective gun.”
The cases center on the P320, not having an external manual safety, known as a tab trigger. Attorneys bringing the cases say a crucial design flaw 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, is a single mother of a young son and an officer in the Somerville, Mass., Police Department.
As the third-most senior officer on the block, the 12-year veteran was beginning a typical night shift patrol — 4 p.m. to midnight — in the sector cruiser on April 6, 2022.
She parked and walked toward her patrol car “when I heard a loud bang, and I felt this sharp pain in my upper right thigh,” she told The Post.
Sgt. Catatao’s shooting was captured on a security camera.
The footage will be used in the legal case she is bringing against SIG over her P320.
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 saw a hole in my pants.”
But nobody was trying to shoot her: Instead, she had been wounded by 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.
Catatao is just one of the 82 cases involving law enforcement, brought by personal injury attorney Robert Zimmerman with the Philadelphia law firm Saltz, Mongeluzzi, Barrett, and Bendesky.
Zimmerman told The Post 40 of his clients are part of two separate mass actions in New Hampshire, where SIG Sauer is headquartered. The other cases are individually filed in state and federal courts throughout the country — Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Kentucky.
Among those taking legal action are as many as 10 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Other lawyers are involved too. Zimmerman said that, in total, the litigation involves over 150 incidents of guns going off.
He says something must be done immediately before more people are injured.
“We’re calling on SIG to recall this weapon and redesign it to make it safe,” Zimmerman told The Post.
“The issue is that SIG Sauer has advertised this gun as a gun that won’t fire unless the user wants it to fire, and none of my clients wanted this gun to fire.
Zimmerman said the P320 is “unique” because SIG Sauer is the only manufacturer making this type of gun without an external manual safety.
That device, known as a tab trigger, needs to be depressed “intentionally” to make sure the gun can fire. Without that tab being depressed, the weapon can’t fire.
Glock developed the tab safety, a standard feature on striker-fired guns.
“SIG needs to put a tab trigger on this gun to make it safe,” Zimmerman said. “A gun should not fire unless a user wants it to fire.”
The other issue, maintains Zimmerman, is that the P320 “has an extremely short trigger pull and no safety makes it the most dangerous gun on the market.”
SIG Sauer has said the shorter trigger distance is to improve accuracy, notes Zimmerman, “but they are not saying that adding a tab trigger would do anything to decrease accuracy.”
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. https://t.co/CeIPzGbpa3
— The Pug (@thepugnews) May 22, 2023
SIG Sauer P320 Pistol Firing on Its Own, Owners Say
These lawsuits are legit. If you’ve got a P320, I would take it out of service until this is resolved.
https://t.co/ecSpwbU8rz— John Jackson (@hissgoescobra) May 22, 2023
In 2018, more than 500,000 P320 pistols were sold before the company acknowledged concerns about unintended discharge and modified the weapon.
In 2017 announced a “voluntary upgrade” program that allows P320 owners to ship their guns to the company for a free fix. The company’s website, which says the “P320 meets and exceeds all U.S. safety standards,” explains the upgrade was offered because “we have confirmed that usually after multiple drops, at certain angles and conditions, a potential discharge of the firearm may result when dropped.”
The company’s website says such a discharge is “a rare occurrence, with particular conditions.”
Since her P320 shot her, Catatao has been assigned to detectives and is finishing her second master’s degree in mental health counseling to help fellow officers with emotional problems.
She still carries the SIG P320, but unlike before she was shot, she doesn’t keep a bullet in the chamber.
Join your fellow patriots and subscribe to our Youtube Channel.
As a police department weapons armorer and firearms instructor before retiring, I had a thorough knowledge of our issued sidearm, the SIG P226, and never had an issue with the weapon.
The P320 is a different breed of pistol, however. The mechanics are slightly different, as it is a polymer-framed pistol and striker-fired.
If officers are not confident in their weapons, police departments should allow carrying other weapons until the issue is resolved.
Officer Catatao now carries her sidearm on duty without a round in the chamber for fear of self-firing, which is unacceptable.
SIG Sauer needs to do better.
Other stories you may want to read:
Target Sells Trans Clothing to Children Designed by Satanic Transgender
- [Video] NYC Baseball Bat Thug Attacks Random Stranger - July 12, 2023
- California Assembly Blocks Child Trafficking Bill - July 12, 2023
- Georgia Mayor Arrested for Burglary – ‘Do You Know Who the F*** I Am’ - July 10, 2023