US Military M17 & M18 Pistols Causing Unintentional Discharges
Documents detail U.S. soldiers shot by their own Sig Sauer guns; military says no reason for concern
Around lunchtime on Feb. 8, 2023, inside an administrative office at Fort Eustis in Virginia, a sergeant with the Army’s 221st Military Police Detachment stood chatting with his supervisor.
Another soldier on his way to an office refrigerator tried to squeeze past the sergeant in a narrow hallway. That’s when their gun holsters made contact.
“All I remember was the clanking” of the two holsters, the sergeant would later tell an Army investigator, according to a military report, “and [the] gun shot.”
A bullet from the sergeant’s own gun ripped through his foot, leading to surgery and six months of rehabilitation. Photos included in the Army’s report appear to show a bloodstained carpet.
“Don’t feel safe around those weapons anymore,” the sergeant later told investigators.
The gun that wounded the sergeant is manufactured by Sig Sauer, a New Hampshire-based firearms company that has faced dozens of lawsuits claiming its model P320 pistol has a design or manufacturing flaw that leaves it susceptible to these types of incidents: people being shot by their own gun, without a trigger pull.
Sig Sauer maintains that the P320 — which is now the standard-issue pistol for U.S. soldiers across the globe — is safe. The company noted in a statement to NHPR that it has prevailed in 13 legal cases in which a judge or jury ruled they weren’t liable for any injuries, though a federal jury in Georgia last week awarded a gunowner $2.3 million in damages after his P320 discharged while still holstered, leaving him with a serious leg injury.
The shooting at Fort Eustis is one of nine separate incidents involving the U.S. military detailed in documents obtained by New Hampshire Public Radio that echo the claims made in many of the lawsuits against Sig Sauer from individual gun owners and police officers who say their pistols fired without a trigger pull.
The SIG P320 was already a controversial choice, though better than the option from Glock which has equally bad safety issues. However the stonewalling from SIG and the miltary is slowly beginning to crumble with the recent case in Georgia. OTOH, the military having spent that much on the SIG is apparently doubling down on it’s claims that there is nothing wrong with the weapon.