WA police academy bans Sig Sauer after reports it could fire by itself
The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission has prohibited recruits from training with a popular semiautomatic handgun and has banned the pistol from the commission’s campuses after reports the gun could fire without someone pulling the trigger.
In an order issued Feb. 24, commission Executive Director Monica Alexander made a permanent prohibition of the Sig Sauer P320, one of the most popular handguns on the market, a version of which is used by the U.S. military.
Alexander had temporarily banned anyone from carrying and training with the firearm after an Oct. 9 incident, in which a recruit in a Basic Law Enforcement Academy class in Spokane reported his Sig Sauer “self-discharged” as he drew it to fire on targets at the police range. The round struck the ground behind the recruit and fragmented, striking and injuring an instructor and another recruit.
The recruit insisted his trigger finger was “indexed” — pointed alongside the frame of the handgun, outside of the trigger guard — when he drew the weapon. A firearms instructor confirmed the incident, stating he was watching the recruit’s hand and that the “weapon immediately fired while he was drawing the weapon” while his finger was not on the trigger.
Noting reports of similar incidents, Alexander issued a temporary ban of the handgun Oct. 17 — first reported by KING 5 — and formed a working group of police officials, firearms instructors, Criminal Justice Training Commission staff and representatives from the manufacturer in New Hampshire, where Sig Sauer is headquartered.
Members of the group met four times in October and November, while the temporary ban was in place. Based on a summary of the meetings contained in a report published Feb. 24, the group was sharply divided — and not free from gun politics or anti-gun conspiracy theories.
“There was a clear theme offered by work group members against the temporary prohibition” issued by Alexander in October, the report states. They felt the presentation by the manufacturer’s representatives “was clear and convincing” that the P320 and its military versions (called the M17 and M18) cannot fire without the trigger being pulled.
Offering “no evidence or contrary information,” these members discounted news accounts, lawsuits and video evidence presented by others in the work group, according to the report, and blamed the recruits, instructors and improper training for the incidents.
“Although not widely supported, a work group member opined that the online videos are propaganda created by George Soros,” the billionaire philanthropist known to fund Democratic causes.
The work group uncovered a number of lawsuits and video of incidents involving the Sig Sauer P320 firing while in a holster, including 2022 body-camera video of an officer in Milwaukee who was wounded when his partner’s firearm discharged in its holster.
Another body-camera video shows a 2023 incident in Montville, N.J., where an officer’s holstered sidearm goes off in the lobby of the police station.
There also have been a number of lawsuits filed against Sig Sauer over unintended discharges of the P320, including one settled in Tacoma in 2023 after a man suffered a serious leg wound when his gun discharged while he was holstering it. The details of the settlement were not immediately available.
Last July, a federal jury in Georgia awarded $2.3 million to a man injured when his P320 discharged unexpectedly. Meantime, a federal jury in Philadelphia last year awarded $11 million to an Army veteran who was seriously injured when his holstered Sig Sauer discharged into his leg.
The Washington Post and the firearms investigation group The Trace, in a story published in 2023, detailed the safety issues surrounding the P320 and found more than 80 instances where people were injured by their own guns.
The Sig Sauer P320 was first manufactured in 2014 and is among the most popular semiautomatic handguns in the world, with an estimated 500,000 in circulation in the U.S. The military has adopted variants of the P320 as its standard sidearm, called the M17 and the M18. It is chambered for a number of popular calibers, including 9-mm and .45 ACP.
Alexander wrote that her decision to formally ban the Sig Sauer P320 from the academy and state criminal justice training campuses in Spokane and Burien was made “out of an abundance of caution for the safety of our recruits and staff.”
“Despite the argument that an un-commanded discharge is impossible, there remains an abundance of allegations of un-commanded discharges occurring around the county and world attributed nearly exclusively to the Sig Sauer P320, M17 and M18 platform,” the work group report concluded. “The WSCJTC’s only concern in this process is preserving the safe learning and working environments for its recruits and instructors.”
“I empathize with the budgetary impacts of this decision,” Alexander wrote in her order banning the firearm, understanding that some departments allow their officers to carry the weapon.
The state’s largest police department, Seattle, issues its officers Glock handguns. Likewise, the King County Sheriff’s Office issues Glocks, or allows its officers to pick from a list of other qualified handguns. Sheriff’s spokesperson Brandyn Hull said the Sig Sauer P320 is not among them.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department banned the use of the P320 by deputies in 2023 after publicity around allegations the gun could misfire.