I’m upset that I need to post this article. But by now there are too many datapoints, too much controversy, and too many of you reading this that I feel it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Black Lagoon and Bowtied Caiman CAN NO LONGER RECOMMEND the Sig Sauer P320 series of pistols in good conscience.
Why?
Because there is a small, but very likely real risk of the guns going off accidentally without the user pulling the trigger.
P320 BACKGROUND: CONTROVERSEY FROM THE START
If you’re unfamiliar with the Sig Sauer P320, it’s Sig’s current flagship pistol line intended for military, law enforcement, and civilian use. It popularized the concept of a chassis system in pistols, where one serialized part can be swapped through different size frames and barrels. In less than a decade on the market, the P320 has etched out enormous popularity and thousands upon thousands of satisfied customers.
However, it’s always had teething issues since Day 1
The P320 really hit popularity by winning a major US military contract to replace the Beretta M9 in service. Famously, it beat out Glock and all the other favored brands, to the surprise of many in the firearms industry. However, it wasn’t long after the P320 was adopted by the military that it came to light that the pistol had a crucial flaw involving the trigger, that caused the gun to go off if it was dropped on the ground or struck with a hard surface at just the right angle.
Sig was quick to fix this issue, solving it by replacing the trigger that could withstand the inertia from being dropped. So for the time being, a crisis was averted, but it was understandable that it would leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.
It’s worth noting that around this same time, Sig had just restructured and moved their HQ to the United States from Europe, and was now in a period of rapid growth to capture as much of the US firearms industry as possible. This push for growth had the unintended side effect of convincing many firearms enthusiasts that Sig was skimping on quality. Over the last 10 years they released a number of products that were found to have defects or poor design decisions, and Sig chose to rectify them by simply releasing a new version and accepting a trade-in. This is obviously the “right thing to do” from a Customer Relations standpoint, but we’re not buying washing machines here. Perhaps it’s a good idea for a gun company to get their designs right the first time, and not rely on their paying customers to beta test Life-Saving Equipment like a gun? You wouldn’t want a “prototype” life preserver, vaccine, or parachute, would you ?
In any case, as the years passed since the Big Trigger Fix, there were anecdotal reports of P320s still going off for like….no reason whatsoever. For a long time these reports were unsubstantiated, but in the last few years there’s been enough evidence of faulty guns discharging accidentally that more than one civil lawsuit has been filed against Sig in US Federal courts. Dozens of police officers (including one that reached out to Black Lagoon personally) as well as a notable YouTube personality and competitive shooter have witnessed these accidental discharges live and got camera footage of it. Typically, this Accidental Discharge (where the gun goes off due to a fault in the pistol, not to be confused with a Negligent Discharge caused by operator error) occurs seconds after the pistol has been otherwise safely placed inside a holster, leading to a high risk of taking a round out of nowhere into your femoral artery.
So far, it appears Sig has decided to settle these lawsuits behind closed doors rather than a have judgement be placed against them. I see this as a worrying sign that they are dodging responsibility, or worse, they still have no idea what the problem with their pistols actually is.
In any case, Police Departments nationwide are ditching P320s, even those that only recently switched over from Glocks and are going back to the Promised Land of Gaston.
So What’s the Outcome?
Very TLDR: Don’t purchase a Sig P320, and if you have one already think very carefully about the potential risk before loading one for use ever again.
Sig has, by far, the best and most aggressive marketing team in the firearms industry, and if you’re at all involved in the 2A community on social media, you have probably seen influencers peddling the P320 like it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. I can comfortably say that if someone’s trying to convince you to get a P320 because it’s somehow innately superior to the competition, That Person is 100% Full of Shit and you’d best to ignore them from now on.
I like the P320 platform. It’s a comfortable gun, it’s easy to shoot, and the modularity of it is awesome in concept. But between the very real potential danger of using the platform, and the (in my opinion) unethical way that Sig has handled this dilemma, I recommend you get any other gun besides a P320 for now. For those that are new and don’t know what else is available in the same niche, any of these 9mm pistols will work to satisfy the same mission.
Glock 19 and Glock 17
Smith and Wesson M&P 2.0 and 2.0 Compact
Walther PDP and PDP F-Series
Beretta APX A1
CZ P-10 F and P-10 C
That’s all for today. I hope all of you have a great week.
Do you have thoughts on the P320? Leave it in the comments or shoot me a shoutout or DM on Twitter. Take care.
My favorite part of the whole debacle is how the DoD notified Sig there was an issue during their drop testing, and Sig continued to sell the civilian P320 with the old trigger for 4 months while scrambling to fix the M17/M18 for the military trials.