Sig Sauer P320 Pistols ‘Extraordinarily Dangerous’ Due to Defect, Class Action Says

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A proposed class action lawsuit claims that P320 pistols manufactured by Sig Sauer are defective as they do not possess certain expected safety features and are effectively ready to fire as soon as a round of bullets is loaded.

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According to the 30-page Sig Sauer lawsuit, the company regularly dismisses concerns from both consumers and law enforcement agencies over the “needlessly dangerous” design of the P320 and attempts to “uniformly conceal the defect” from the public. The defect is said to consist of three components and impacts all models of the purportedly lightweight, easy-to-use P320 regardless of size or add-ons, the suit relays.

Related Reading: Sig Sauer Hit with Class Action in Missouri Over Alleged P320 Pistol Inadvertent Discharge Risk

Firstly, the case explains that P320s are fully energized, or charged up with the mechanical energy required for firing, as soon as a round is chambered. Second, the trigger pull of the P320 is much shorter and lighter than that of competitors’ pistols, the case further relays, which means a user does not need to exert as much force to fire the gun.

Though the design makes the pistol lighter and easier to use, it also means that the P320 can “discharge a bullet any time a round is chambered” with significantly less effort, the class action lawsuit says.

Despite this, the case points out that Sig Sauer elected not to design the P320 with any external safety features regularly used on other pistols, such as manual safeties, trigger safeties, or grip safeties that prevent the guns from activating. Per the complaint, this third design choice exacerbates the dangers of the first two by minimizing external safety controls that gun users regularly rely on to prevent a loaded gun from firing.

“Because the P320 is effectively cocked when loaded, the P320 is functionally equivalent to a single action pistol with the hammer cocked back, i.e., ready to fire and without any safety features to prevent it from firing,” the case states.

According to the complaint, the P320 was originally designed using “leftover parts” of a past Sig Sauer pistol that was taken off the market for safety concerns. The complaint further states that Sig Sauer’s engineering team was “sidelined” during the design phase of the P320 and that “[b]efore working on the P320, no one on the P320’s design team had ever designed a striker fired pistol.”

Since its unveiling, the lawsuit mentions, Sig Sauer has received over 200 complaints of unintended discharges of the P320, many of which have led to serious accidents and fatalities, including those of police officers. Moreover, a 2017 report that Sig Sauer provided to the U.S. Army found that the P320 is at “a ‘high’ risk for having an accidental discharge that could kill a person unintentionally,” the suit says. Taken together, the lawsuit argues, the evidence indicates that Sig Sauer is well aware of the P320’s design defect yet continues to sell the gun without any warning about its risks.

“Indeed, Sig Sauer’s response to customer complaints and media reports about the P320 has been a strategy of denial. Sig Sauer’s internal documents show that the company blames the ‘anti-gun media’… the injured officers and their lawyers… or even its competitor, Glock,” the lawsuit discloses.

Notably, Sig Sauer allegedly leans into advertising campaigns based on military combat and the company’s relationship with the U.S. Armed Forces, but the complaint points out that the military-grade Sig Sauer pistol includes “several design modifications” and is not the same as the standard P320 model available to consumers.

The Sig Sauer class action lawsuit looks to cover all individuals who purchased a Sig Sauer P320 pistol without an external thumb safety in Washington state between November 17, 2021 and the present.

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