Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
by Susan Katz Keating and Austin Lee
Firearms manufacturer SIG Sauer has known for years that its P320 handgun could fire unexpectedly and without the shooter pulling the trigger, according to an attorney who sued the company last year in a wrongful death case involving the pistol.
A SIG engineer revealed that information while testifying under oath, attorney Robert Zimmerman told Soldier of Fortune.
“The P320 is a dangerously defective weapon in its present form,” and has been linked to more than 350 unintended discharge incidents, Zimmerman said.
“This is something that SIG predicted in their own internal studies, and they said the exact opposite in their marketing of this weapon,” he said. The studies found that the P320 had design hazards that place the gun at risk of uncommanded discharges in a couple situations. “Sig assessed that the risk could kill its users.”
Zimmerman made his comments as SIG increasingly is embattled not only over the P320 design flaw, but also for its reaction to complaints about the weapon.
READ MORE: Air Force Global Strike Command Tells Units to Stop Using M18 Handgun After 21-Year- Old Airman is Killed
In responding to public statements and in legal filings, the gun giant has come out swinging. In a statement on its website and on social media, SIG charged that an anti-gun mob and agenda-driven “grifters” had highjacked the truth for profit.
SIG lodged those complaints before Air Force Airman Brayden T. Lovan, 21, died when his P320-variant service pistol, the SIG Sauer M18, allegedly discharged without warning after the young man placed the weapon on a table. The incident occurred on July 20, while Lovan was at his first assignment, at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming.
One lawyer who represents people allegedly harmed by the weapon accused the company of trying to “discredit, shame, and intimidate” legal professionals who took on litigation against SIG. This, despite knowing that people have documented their problems with the gun.
“Defendant Sig was aware of all these hundreds of incidents at the time it issued the Statement defaming plaintiffs as dishonest, profit seeking grifters,” attorney Jeffrey Bagnell wrote in an April 22 lawsuit.
Others have said that SIG tried to intimidate them into silence.
“We’ve heard about people being sent cease-and-desist letters, threatening letters, from SIG Sauer,” said Zimmerman, who represents Lovan’s family.
The company also has taken on gun ranges that will not allow the P320 on site. In a July 29 memorandum to the gun world, SIG wrote that in the wake of “inaccurate reports about the gun,” a number of facilities “made the reactionary decision to ban the P320.” The company directed people to use a dedicated tip line in order to report the bans.
Some viewed the option as offering a “rat line” for people to enable SIG to bully the facilities into lifting their bans.
The tactic does not surprise Zimmerman, he said.
“SIG has a history of bullying and litigating against those who criticize them, including other lawyers,” he said. “Bullies go after those who can’t defend themselves.”
The cases, meanwhile, keep coming to light.
A school resource officer in Ceres, California was injured in June when her holstered Sig Sauer P320 fired without warning in the parking lot of a junior high school. The incident, captured on surveillance video, was later released by the Ceres Police Department. Just weeks earlier, in April, a similar unintentional discharge was caught on camera at a gun range in Knoxville, Tennessee. That facility has since barred the use of the P320, citing what it called “serious safety hazards.”
Houston police officer Richard Fernandez Jr. was shot in the leg by a SIG P320 semiautomatic pistol on Jan. 20 while directing traffic in advance of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade.
“I didn’t do this to myself.” Fernandez said. “This gun malfunctioned and it fired while it was still in the holster.”
Fernandez added his name to the roster of litigants who have sued SIG. He filed his case in Harris County, Texas on July 23.
Lovan’s mother, Melinda Tucker, on Wednesday urged all military service units, federal agents, and law enforcement departments to stop using the P320 and its variants.
A representative from SIG discontinued the call when Soldier of Fortune identified ourselves and said we wanted to talk about the P320. The press office did not respond to a voice message asking to talk about the 320. A representative who answered the “tip line” did not say how many people had called. He directed us to the press office, which did not respond to additional phone calls.
Susan Katz Keating is the publisher and editor in chief at Soldier of Fortune. Austin Lee is the proprietor of Galilhub, and is a gunsmith and a competitive shooter. He writes frequently for Soldier of Fortune.
