{"id":45442,"date":"2025-08-03T09:10:31","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T13:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=45442"},"modified":"2025-08-03T09:10:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T13:10:31","slug":"sig-sauer-and-the-sig-p320-debacle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=45442","title":{"rendered":"Sig Sauer and the Sig P320 debacle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good day all. I\u2019m going to write about something I usually don\u2019t talk much about, other then my unconditional support for the 2nd<\/sup> Amendment. It\u2019s about firearms. In this case, I\u2019m going to talk about the Sig Sauer P320 and it\u2019s military equivalents, the M17\/M18.<\/p>\n

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First, the Due Diligence. I do not and never have owned a Sig P320. I do own several other Sig products, not to be named anywhere. I am not a gunsmith\/armorer nor am I a lawyer. Undoubtedly I will make mistakes. Please feel free to correct me in the comments.<\/p>\n

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Now to the Sig Sauer P320. This pistol was originally put together for the United States Military to replace the Beretta M9 pistol, which replaced the good old reliable, M1911 .45. There were a number of reasons for this, and I\u2019ll let others better informed go into that history.<\/p>\n

The P320 is a striker fired, 9mm pistol that, among other things, is designed to be modular. The actual \u201cGun,\u201d the part that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, (ATF), considers to be a firearm is the trigger group, also known as the Fire Control Group or FCU. This is the part that has the serial number on it.<\/p>\n

It was designed so that the FCU could be put into different grip modules with different length barrels and slides. Basically you could have the FCU and different grip modules and barrels and go from a full sized pistol to a compact, easily concealed pistol. This is far simpler and cheaper then buying different guns for different circumstances.<\/p>\n

When Sig Sauer won the contract to replace the M9\/Beretta 92 pistols, people started looking at buying the civilian version. I personally did look at them, but decided it wasn\u2019t for me. It appears I made a good decision. Shortly after the P320 went on the market, reports began coming in that if you dropped a P320, it would go off.<\/p>\n

Sig\u2019s response was \u201cNo, this can\u2019t happen, it\u2019s user error.\u201d The general response to this was \u201cHold my beer and watch this!\u201d In fairly short order, people were able to take a standard, unmodified P320 and drop it at a certain angle and BANG!, it went off. Of course, they were using blanks or just primer caps, not live ammo. (Unlike the actual reported incidents)<\/p>\n

Sig Sauer finally came up with a \u201cVoluntary\u201d program where P320 owners could send in their pistols for an upgrade. However, Sig still doesn\u2019t admit there was a design problem. Most people thought that this was just an easy to correct teething issue. Then people started saying their P320\u2019s were going off just sitting in the holsters.<\/p>\n

Sig Sauer again refused to consider there was an issue and again blamed the users. Then videos started being posted, usually from police bodycams or security cameras where you could clearly see the user had their P320 holster and their hands nowhere near the firearm and in some cases, with their hand occupied carrying other items.<\/p>\n

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Then came the worst case scenario. Up until last week, there had been people injured by uncommanded discharges but no one had been killed. Then news came out that a service member in the United States Airforce had taken his holstered M17\/18 off and put it on his desk. The gun went off with the round striking the airman in the chest. The wound proved fatal and he passed away.<\/p>\n

That tragedy has set off the current remarks and investigations. First, the USAF has pulled the M17\/18\u2019s from service pending a full review. This is on top of a number of police departments and Federal Law Enforcement agencies also pulling the P320 from service. Then you have Sig Sauer\u2019s general response to the reports of uncommanded discharges. (The gun going off with no action by the user) Initially, prior to the recent tragedy with the Airman, Sig Sauer\u2019s general response was essentially attacking anyone who reported incidents and blaming everything on user error.<\/p>\n

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After the death of the Airman and the withdrawal from service of the USAF M17\/18\u2019s, Sig Sauer changed their tune a bit stating that they were happy to work with government officials to determine the cause of the accident. Then came \u201cThe Video.\u201d<\/p>\n

The video I\u2019m referring to is by a guntuber called Wyoming Gun Project. He took a Sig P320 and demonstrated that with a very light pressure on the trigger, not even hitting what is called \u201cThe Wall\u201d (The point where the trigger pull increases as you pull the trigger back), and just by twisting the slide slightly, would cause the P320 to fire. Here is the video. It\u2019s a good 40 minutes due to the detail the creator put into it.<\/p>\n