Sig Sauer, a major gun manufacturer of a pistol that’s popular with law enforcement and civilians alike, has come under fire in Oklahoma in the latest round of multiple lawsuits and complaints alleging a version of the weapon misfired without the trigger being pulled.
Oklahoman Tyler Herman contends in a lawsuit that his Sig Sauer P320 discharged “without the trigger being touched,” and inflicted “grievous injuries” to him. The lawsuit was filed against the company, (SIG), in Oklahoma City federal district court on Feb. 3.
Herman is demanding the gun maker pay $10 million plus interest, attorneys’ fees, and court costs.
The town where Herman lives is not mentioned in his lawsuit petition, and his attorney did not respond to a message The Ledger left for him.
A week after Herman’s suit was initiated, on Feb. 10, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Jimmy S.C. Jinn filed another lawsuit against SIG claiming his P320 discharged “without the trigger being pulled” while he was conducting a tactical shooting drill during a qualification course at a pistol range.
Jinn, 49, a 24-year law enforcement officer who has “substantial firearms experience,” filed his suit in the federal district court of the Southern District of New York. He is seeking $7 million in actual, punitive and compensatory damages, court costs and attorneys’ fees.
Jinn also asked the court to order SIG to “issue a recall notice or other enhanced, unambiguous warning to all purchasers of the P320, stating that the weapon can fire without a trigger pull,” something the gun maker has not done, despite scores of mishaps nationwide.
A review of SIG’s website by The Ledger shows the firm is promoting the pistol itself on its website using a link with the headline “P320 Voluntary Upgrade Program.” The P320 webpage, which never mentions the possibility of the gun going off involuntarily, contains a video on how to upgrade the handgun as well as several diagrams about how the fix is made https://www. sigsauer.com/support/p320- voluntary-upgrade/#video.
In the video, a company spokesman tells viewers that the P320 has been “upgraded” and that the new upgrades and the instructional video and gun diagrams has “nothing to do with gun safety” “or drop safety.”
The Herman and Jinn cases are two examples of multiple incidents, complaints and lawsuits nationwide where gun owners have complained the semi-automatic handgun goes off without ever being touched by the owner.
OKLAHOMAN SAYS P320 HOLSTERED WHEN IT FIRED
Herman claims that he was at home on Feb. 2, 2018, and was removing his “fully holstered” Sig Sauer P320 semi-automatic pistol from his belt when the gun fired a single shot.
The bullet entered his upper right groin, exited “through and below his testicles” and traveled into his left knee, “where the shrapnel remained until further surgery” was performed to remove it, the lawsuit petition reads.
Herman did not pull the trigger, the lawsuit states. “Yet the weapon still fired and shot him in the leg, narrowly missing his femoral artery, which would have been a mortal injury,” according to court documents.
After he was released from the hospital, Herman was “out of work for approximately 8-10 months until he was permitted to begin desk duties.”
In addition, he says he has “suffered temporary palsy of his muscle and has lingering effects” from the “unintentional discharge” of the weapon, including “trouble urinating and maintaining control of his bladder, continued physical therapy, issues with everyday functioning (bending, squatting, crossing his legs, weakness) which still affect his day-to-day work, and possible infertility issues” leading to “uncertainty of whether he can conceive children.”
LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER ‘NEVER PULLED TRIGGER’ YET P320 PISTOL FIRED
Jinn said he was at a shooting range in the New York City borough of the Bronx when he was wounded on July 24, 2019.
As he placed his hand on the weapon’s grip “while holstered to begin the draw process,” his pistol fired one round through his holster into his right leg,” he alleges. The bullet, traveling at “approximately 1,700 mph,” perforated his right thigh, “tunneled through it” and downward behind his knee,” and exited through his calf.
Jinn “never pulled the trigger at any time during the initiation of the draw process,” the suit claims.
Transported to a hospital, he underwent surgery for “limb salvage and hemorrhage control,” his lawsuit petition states.
After the surgery, Jinn states he developed numbness and paresthesia of his lower right leg, developed tibial vein deep vein thrombosis “putting him at risk for a pulmonary embolism and death,” and was required to take blood thinners and painkillers for months.
Jinn said he continues to experience lower leg numbness and pain in his posterior thigh whenever he has to stand or sit at length. He also alleges he “can no longer run or function the way he had been before the incident.”
MANUFACTURER’S MARKETING MATERIAL MISLEADING
Herman and Jinn both point to SIG marketing materials that state, “We’ve designed safety elements into every necessary feature on this pistol” and consequently the P320 “won’t fire unless you want it to.”
“Despite this express representation” the weapon fired without the trigger being touched, both plaintiffs allege in their lawsuits.
For many years since the P320 was first introduced to the market in 2014, SIG “has recklessly failed to recall (the pistol) despite knowing of many grievous wounds it has inflicted on law enforcement agents and civilians across the country,” Jinn contends.
While SIG was competing in 2016 for a $580 million contract with the U.S. Army, the company’s prototype P320s “exhibited nearly 200 malfunctions during Army testing,” Jinn claims. The Army “demanded that SIG fix all problems associated with the prototypes.”
The U.S. Army announced in January 2017 that it had chosen the Swiss-designed Sig Sauer P320 to replace the iconic M9 Beretta, the Army’s sidearm of choice for more than three decades.
On May 10, 2017, the U.S. Army “essentially demanded that SIG change its entire internal firing assembly” for the P320, Jinn says. The company complied “and made all requested changes to the Army version of the weapon.”
However, Jinn continued, SIG left approximately half a million P320s “in their original condition ... to be used by United States law enforcement and civilians...”
SIG made only the modifications “demanded by the Army but continued to sell defective versions to the public well into 2017,” Herman complains. Therefore, SIG has “negligently and recklessly failed to issue a mandatory recall of the commercial version” which is owned by civilians and law enforcement agencies “all over the country.”
SIG has “expressly represented, since the P320s manufacture and distribution into the stream of commerce, that the weapon possessed a ‘robust safety system,’” Jinn contends in his suit.
Yet the original design and manufacture of the P320 “rendered the weapon unreasonably dangerous for its intended uses, and for any foreseeable uses and accidents involving its intended uses, including any normal carrying, holstering, unholstering, or rough handling in any altercation or combat, including at the time SIG sold the P320 to Jinn’s HSI Department in 2018.”
‘VOLUNTARY UPGRADE’ AFTER LAWSUIT FILED
SIG, on Aug. 8, 2017, announced a “voluntary upgrade” for the P320 to retrofit the weapon with new components, just days after a Stamford, Conn., police officer filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the company.
The officer, a member of the town’s Special Response Team, alleged he was injured when his holstered P320 pistol discharged when it fell and hit the ground as he loaded equipment into a vehicle in 2017. The bullet struck the man in a leg and knee.
That lawsuit claimed the officer’s injuries were the result of a defective safety mechanism in the design
Photo provided of the P320, which is a mounting topic among firearms owners.
The upgrade of commercial versions of the firearm “was presented to the public as purely optional, not urgent and not mandatory,” Herman alleges. To date SIG has not issued a “mandatory recall” of the P320 for repairs, “though it has done so in the past for other of its products,” Herman states.
SIG issued a second “voluntary upgrade” notice in April 2018 to all users or owners of the P320, “but still did not recall the weapon,” Jinn states in his lawsuit.
Both plaintiffs contend that in the original owner’s manual for the P320, Sig Sauer stated that “the weapon may fire if dropped without the trigger being pulled if the chamber is not empty.”
Yet it is “standard operating procedure” for all U.S. law enforcement agencies, the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, local police departments, and the military, at a commander’s discretion, “to carry pistols with a chambered round,” Jinn contends.
Herman charges that SIG is guilty of negligence, breach of implied warranty, breach of warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and violation of Oklahoma’s Consumer Protection Act.
Jinn accused SIG of negligence, breach of implied warranty, strict liability, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.