SIGnificant News

You've likely heard of the news story of the Air Force airman who, as it was originally related, was shot by his Sig M18 while it was in the holster untouched?

Apparently that's not quite what actually happened: 

Air Force Times: Air Force makes arrest in airman’s shooting death involving M18 pistol 

The Air Force has arrested an airman in connection with the July 20 death of another airman, which involved a Sig Sauer M18 and led the service to suspend the use of the pistol following the incident.In a Friday statement, a Department of the Air Force spokesperson said that the unidentified arrested person is accused of making a false official statement, obstruction of justice and involuntary manslaughter.

That story was the last straw that made the SIG P320 pistol non grata at ranges, competitions,  instructional firearms classes, and many law enforcement departments nationwide.  

As someone else noted on the internet:

The say 15 reported documented cases of UDs vs 4 million P320s in circulation. That’s a ratio of around 266,667:1; hardly a number suggesting a systemic design flaw. Let’s even be generous and say the number is closer to 100 incidents. That still only yields a 1 in 40,000 occurrence. To put that into perspective, the odds of being struck by lightning are around 1 in 15,000. 

Certainly puts some perspective on the problem.

Now, the SIG trigger when pulled makes the firearm go off, and the trigger doesn't much care what pulls it, be it an ill-fitting holster, a key (which is potentially what caused the Michigan State Police discharge in the FBI report), or your finger. If the trigger gets pulled past the point of no return and off it goes. I'd also say it's a tad lighter than the typical Glock trigger with less resistance to such a movement rearward into the firing position.

So far, there's been no real explanation for the undocumented discharges, nor repeatability of the problem, and Bruce Gray, who likely knows more about the SIG P320 than just about anyone alive is about to release a series of videos he has done extensively testing the pistol.  So far, he's only found one way to make it have an uncommanded discharge, and it requires placing a 45/10mm take-down lever in a 9mm SIG and a few other unlikely modifications in order for it to happen. 

So are SIG P320s unsafe or are we getting a lot of social media panic over it?  I simply do not know the answer to that at this time.

In terms of anecdote and not data, I've run thousands of rounds through my SIG P320s in competition and in casual/practice shooting at the range, drawing and holstering and carrying them live with zero issues.  Again, anecdote and not data, and certainly not definitive, nor proof of anything.

Remember when Glocks first came out and reports of negligent discharges from police officers and others unfamiliar with using the striker-fired action were unfortunately shooting themselves?  Remember all the claims that the Glock was dangerous, defective, and unsafe as a result? Is the issues with the SIG P320s the same sort of reaction, now heightened by social media,  or is there a manufacturing or design defect affecting a small number of the pistols?  We will still have to see.

SIG's public relations and handling of the issue certainly hasn't been the best.  

I do hope that Bruce Gray's analysis gets released soon and does lead to a definitive answer to the situation. For now, I don't have an answer to the question as to whether there is a real design/manufacturing problem affecting the SIG P3230 or if this is a real user-induced problem.