Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of stories that you will find only in The Southwest Ledger about the ongoing defects, complaints and court cases surrounding the Sig Sauer P320 semi-automatic pistol and claims the weapon erratically discharges without the trigger being pulled. The weapon is commonly used by law enforcement and gun enthusiasts around the country.
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Preliminary checks with a number of Oklahoma’s largest law enforcement agencies reveal that even though a number of law enforcement agencies have officers using the controversial Sig Sauer P320 semi-automatic pistol there have been no reported instances of those weapons misfiring and injuring an officer. The state Department of Public Safety, parent agency of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, provides its troopers with the Sig Sauer P320 “and has had no issues with our current issue sidearm,” agency spokesperson Sarah Stewart said.
New recruits to the Oklahoma City Police Department are issued the P320, the department’s Media Relations Division confirmed. “We’ve had no issues with ours,” said a sergeant at the department’s pistol range. Lawton police officers carry the .45-caliber Glock 21 pistol, LPD Public Information Officer Timothy Jenkins told The Ledger. In The Village Police Department in north Oklahoma City, “Our policy has been that our officers can carry what they are comfortable with and can qualify with, so long as it’s 9mm, .40 or .45 caliber and made by a quality manufacturer,” Deputy Chief Russ Landon said.
The Village P.D. bought Glock 17s for every officer who wanted one, and most have elected to carry that weapon, Landon said. However, “If an officer wanted to carry the Sig, we would allow it, provided the officer could consistently qualify with it,” Landon said. The Army’s selection of the P320 was “a pretty big endorsement” of that pistol, he added. Sig Sauer announced on Feb. 21 that the Nevada Highway Patrol, with 480 troopers, “has transitioned to the Sig Sauer P320 9mm pistol as their official duty pistol.”