Despite Sig Sauer’s best efforts to deflect, delay and deny, the issues with their P320/M17/M18 handguns have not gone away. Incidents of “uncommanded discharge”, the politically correct way of saying the firearm fired on its own, continue to come in. A new recent unmistakably clear video showing no manipulation of the trigger, yet it still went off.
There is an update to the incident involving a Sig Sauer M18 which claimed the life of a US airman. One airman, who it appears later took his own life, was charged with manslaughter for negligently pointing his firearm at the victim and firing. Two other airmen in the room also lied about the incident. NONE of this should have happened and those who remain deserve all the scorn their betrayal to the Air Force and their fellow airmen this brings with it.
While THIS incident was resolved in Sig Sauer’s favor, it does not erase the injuries and lives lost going back around 10 years now. Numerous lawsuits have been filed, the most recent this past week, involving thirty-four (34) P320 owners-plaintiffs across 23 states. From everything I have seen, there are hundreds of victims around the country.
The State of New Jersey has also sued Sig Sauer demanding they stop selling this firearm and recall them. At least 10 New Jersey residents have been injured in shootings involving the P320, according to the suit, including the death of a police detective.
Other lawsuits from around the country have had mixed results. Some resulting in victory against Sig Sauer and being awarded multi-million-dollar monetary damages, others have failed. One officer in Massachusetts did win with the federal court ruling the Sig Sauer P320 pistol was defectively designed and caused him injury when it unintentionally discharged while on-duty. However, he will not receive monetary damages after the jury agreed with Sig Sauer that the officer “voluntarily and unreasonably used the P320 pistol knowing that it was defective and dangerous.”
I suppose any victory is a victory, but I can’t imagine the moral gymnastics of arguing they weren’t responsible for damages because the victim knew it was “defective and dangerous”, while also arguing the firearm is not defective.
Also note this year New Hampshire based Sig Sauer successfully lobbied the New Hampshire legislature to provide the company immunity from additional lawsuits concerning these claims.
Still, the fallout for Sig Sauer has been significant. While their military contracts remain intact, law enforcement agencies around the country continue to drop Sig Sauer for other duty firearms. Training companies and ranges will not allow Sig Sauer P320/M17/M18 to be used in their classes or at their facilities.
Gunsmiths are refusing to work on them, and respectable firearm retailers are no longer willing to sell them. Some retailers are taking them in on trade, at a HIGHLY discounted price, and locking them away in back of the vaults under the belief that someday Sig Sauer will step up to the plate by admitting the flaw, issue a mandatory recall to repair them and return them to the expensive and sought after firearms they have always been.
At the same time, two of the company’s top professional shooters & brand ambassadors have recently ended their relationship with the Sig Sauer. There has been no connection to the current issue made by the shooters or the company, but it certainly doesn’t help their image.
Sig Sauer continues to be defiant and denies their firearms have any issues. Keep this in mind when you realize they also quietly updated their P320 user manual to include: “THE MOST EFFECTIVE SAFETY IS TO CARRY YOUR PISTOL WITHOUT A ROUND IN THE CHAMBER, AND TO LOAD A ROUND IN THE CHAMBER ONLY WHEN READY TO FIRE”.
Other than the tragic and unnecessary loss of life, as well as the pain and suffering of those injured, the worst part is damage this is doing to the overall firearm industry. All firearm manufacturers are under the microscope of the coordinated and unlimitedly funded Gun Control, Inc. just waiting for one of them to make a big enough mistake or simply blink.
Glock is desperately trying to keep their access to the civilian marketplace due to new misguided, partisan regulations and activist backed lawsuits, all due to highly illegal so-called “Glock Switches” they don’t make and definitely don’t sanction.
Sig Sauer’s defiance just adds fuel to the anti-gun fire by making it look like ‘another’ evil gun company doesn’t care about the safety of the military, law enforcement, civilian consumers or the community at large. It’s a bad look for Sig Sauer, and a bad look for the firearm community.
Bob
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