Sig Sauer hasn't been having the very best year. They've been getting a lot of heat over the P320 and the reports that it will just discharge even while in the holster. Then, in March, they said "it ends today" in a tone deaf statement that attacked critics and denied there was anything wrong with the pistols. They even said that claims the guns would discharge had been "dismissed in courts around the country."
Of course, they missed the cases that they lost.
And, well, they just lost in yet another courtroom.
A Cambridge police officer and his legal team convinced a federal jury that the SIG Sauer P320 pistol was defectively designed and caused him injury when it unintentionally discharged while on-duty, but he won’t receive the damages he sought in the case.
Jacques Desrosiers won’t receive any “actual, compensatory, and punitive damages” after the jury sided with SIG that the officer “voluntarily and unreasonably used the P320 pistol knowing that it was defective and dangerous,” according to the verdict form.
“While we are disappointed he won’t be getting any compensatory damages, we are happy that a jury now for the third straight time has found the P320 is defectively designed and those defects caused Officer Desrosier’s injury,” said attorney Robert W. Zimmerman, of Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, which represents hundreds of injured SIG Sauer gun owners.
The law firm is calling for the weapon to be recalled or redesigned.
Newington-based SIG posted a lengthy statement titled “P320 information” on its website about news reports involving law enforcement and the military.
“The P320 cannot, under any circumstances, discharge without the trigger first being moved to the rear. This has been verified through exhaustive testing by SIG SAUER engineers, the U.S. Military, several major federal and state law enforcement agencies, and independent laboratories,” the statement reads.
Again, Sig missed the fact that the FBI did find that the gun can be discharged without pulling the trigger "to the rear."
There are multiple videos showing it happening, including the most recent that went viral of Wyoming Gun Project making it happen repeatedly.
Now, I get that Sig is going to lash out at trial attorneys because, well, they're attorneys. They're a popular punching bag for a reason. That doesn't negate the fact that the guns really do appear to "just go off" while in people's holsters.
What Wyoming Gun Project tried to illustrate, and it makes sense, is that things being out of tolerance in a couple of places may well stack and then, with some jiggle in the slide--which really did seem to have way too much play in the example he had--the gun would discharge without the trigger being pulled "to the rear."
Look, I'm not a Sig hater. I covered the voluntary upgrades back in 2017 because it looked like there was a problem, but I didn't hate the company. Anyone can have an issue.
Since then, they've done nothing to endear themselves to anyone.
A lot of the people who mocked the drop issue in 2017 are putting their P320s on a shelf now, and that's expressly because there's mounting evidence and Sig keeps doubling down.
Now, they've lost in yet another court case, and they're likely to lose in more and more as things like that FBI report get introduced to counter the company's claims.
An airman serving in the United States Air Force was freaking killed by this damn gun.
It's up to Sig to do respond to these lawsuits, videos, and other bits of evidence. They could recall the P320, redesign it, or just pull it from the market. Instead, it seems like they're taking this approach.
It's not working out well for them.
If I were running the company, someone--or, more accurately, several someones--would have been fired over this.
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