NEWINGTON, N.H., (July 31, 2023): SIG SAUER has the following statement relative to a reported unintentional discharge from an officer at the Montville, CT Police Department on Monday, July 24, 2023:
“We have seen the news reporting of the incident involving a P320 discharge at the Montville (CT) Police Department. We are confident, as is the case in all instances, that when the factors and evidence are reviewed this will be proven to be an unintentional discharge as a result of inadvertent contact with the trigger, and that the pistol did not fire without a trigger pull.
In reviewing the video footage of this incident currently available, it appears that the involved firearm was not fully seated in its holster and the holster retention hood was not fully closed over the pistol at the time of discharge (images below). This improperly holstered condition would have left the firearm’s trigger exposed and vulnerable to actuation. Even if properly holstered, the features of the involved holster allow for foreign object intrusion and interaction with the trigger, as has been seen in other incidents.
We regret that the involved agency jumped to conclusions regarding the cause of this discharge without first carefully examining the footage of the incident and providing SIG SAUER with an opportunity to assist in the examination of the involved firearm.
The P320 model firearm is used effectively and safely every day, by both civilians and armed professionals. Despite years of litigation and extensive discovery, no one has ever been able to replicate a condition under which the P320 could discharge without a trigger pull, and experts who have attempted to assert such a claim have been repeatedly thrown out of court as unqualified and/or unreliable. Three separate federal courts (in the matters of Frankenberry v. SIG SAUER, Mayes v. SIG SAUER, and Hilton v. SIG SAUER) have concluded that the two experts who have proffered a theory of uncommanded discharge are unfit to testify in court because they are unqualified and/or their opinions are untested and unreliable. In the only case regarding a P320 discharge to proceed to a full trial (Guay v. SIG SAUER), a jury of 12 rejected these experts’ unproven and unscientific theory, and found unanimously in favor of SIG SAUER. SIG SAUER stands behind the proven safety and reliability of the P320.”
Allegedly, what SIG has identified as the SLS hood is actually a CAT that was attached to the front of the holster. The pistol was supposedly fully seated, with a TLR-1 attached, in a Safariland 73xx series holster with the SLS hood fully engaged.
You can see in the video, the last frame that clearly the SLS hood is up and as you said, it is a TQ on the front of the holster and not the hood. I’m sure someone can brighten up the video and it will show it more clearly.
I saw those pictures yesterday and thought that looks alot like my TQ holder. His gun has to be like 4” out of the holster for that to be true.
The P320 is not a safe design. It’s equivalent to carrying a cocked Colt Peacemaker. People always wonder why Glock and S&W trigger pulls “suck”, well it’s because they’re a DA pull. The P320 has a great trigger pull because the striker is fully cocked. Add in tolerances in the stamped FCU as well as the frames and slides and these are the results. SIG will continue to say it’s fine but it is not.
The M&P is a fully cocked striker. As are several other Striker guns.
Glocks are partially cocked, and I think that only Kahrs are fully unlocked.
The SIG P320 is likely the safest pistol available for Law Enforcement use providing the users do not flex or bend their bodies more than the allowable 10 degrees of rotation suggested by SIG SAUER.
Believe me its totally safe! We tried to replicate it and we cant..
I don’t know who to trust less, cops or Sig Sauer.
I’ve seen the video and clearly that was just the Waco Kid showing off. Still a lawman and good to see he got outta Rock Ridge.
It’s really not possible to have a loaded pistol not fully seated in an ALS holster. The weight of the pistol alone will cause it to move downward until the ALS mechanism locks on the handgun. Try it yourself; the handgun will move downward and lock after a second or two if you fail to fully seat it.
I any case, that shouldn’t have mattered. The footage from the surveillance camera and the other officer’s Body Worn Camera show that there weren’t any dangling foreign objects in the area and the officer’s hands were on the suspect he was searching. There was NOTHING to get in the holster.
Kind of strikes me as an unconvincing attempt to deflect blame. The Safariland ALS, SLS or ALS/SLS holsters are the industry standard and are arguably the best duty holsters on the market. If a handgun isn’t “safe” in one of those holsters under duty conditions, then I question how it could be safe under any duty conditions.
make those three pics much smaller one still can see that there is a person