SIG Sauer M17/M18/P320 Pistol Just Can’t Seem to Escape Safety Controversies 

The Swiss-German firm SIG Sauer (“SIG” as in Schweizerische Industrie-Gesellschaft, e.g. “Swiss Industrial Company”) is one of the world’s most venerable and respected gunmakers, dating back to 1853, and accordingly, has won many law enforcement and military contracts around the world in its proud history, including with the U.S. Armed Forces and many civilian law enforcement  (Federal, state, and local alike).

However, as of late, SIG has been dealing with a double-whammy of P.R. nightmares. For starters, as summed up in the title of my very first article for The Epoch Times (published on 13 May 2025), “SIG Sauer XM7 Rifle Faces an Uncertain Future With the US Army.” But what’s creating an even bigger headache for that venerable gunmaker, is all of the alleged safety issues surrounding its P320 pistol.

SIG P320/M17/M18 Initial History

The SIG P320 9mm semiautomatic pistol debuted in 2014. In 2017, SIG would pull off a major coup when they won the contract to dethrone the Beretta M9 (aka the Beretta 92F in civilian circles) as the standard issue sidearms for the U.S. Armed Forces. This was no small feat considering that Beretta is the world’s oldest industrial firm of any kind. The P320 was given the military designation of M17/M18 (the M18 is the more compact version).

Not surprisingly, many civilian police departments and private citizen gun enthusiasts alike also began buying P320s in large numbers.

SIG P320 Safety Controversies Part I: Issues with Military Pistols

However, the troubles soon began. In January 2018, the Pentagon released a report outlining a number of deficiencies, including lack of reliability with NATO standard full metal jacket (aka “hardball”) ammunition, ejecting live rounds, and most significantly, being insufficiently drop-safe, i.e. a proneness to unintentional discharge if dropped. To their credit, SIG initiated a voluntary upgrade program to address the issues.

SIG P320 Safety Controversies Part Deux: Issues with Private Civilian and Law Enforcement Market Pistols

But even after those issues was resolved, a new spate of horror stories about the aforementioned P320 pistol being prone to unintentional discharges in the holster in spite of the trigger being untouched. An investigation revealed that as of April 2023, more than 100 people had reported that their own P320 fired without anyone pulling the trigger, wounding at least 80 of them, including 33 officers at 18 law enforcement agencies. Ten of these injuries occurred within the agency I myself used to work for as a Special Agent from 2009 to 2011, U. S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). (Back then we were issued a different model of SIG handgun, the .40 caliber P229 DAK, which didn’t have these alleged safety maladies.)

At least six of those agencies have dropped the P320 as an approved duty sidearm.

This past March, SIG’s spokespersons pistol’s launched a major P.R. campaign insisting that these discharges are entirely due to operator error and/or improperly-fitted holsters rather than any inherent design defect, but that that hasn’t stopped a slew of lawsuits from rolling in. Indeed, the onslaught of P320-related to the point where the company’s U.S. subsidiary, based in Newington, New Hampshire, asked the New Hampshire State House for immunity…and the request was granted.

As gun writer Tom Knighton of Bearing Arms states:

“Honestly, the way Sig has handled this hasn’t done the company any favors. Trying to make this out to be an anti-gun attack despite it ignoring literally every other product in their lineup isn’t helping, and not just because of the implication that some of us in the pro-gun community are being anti-gun.”

My friend Lou Chiodo—former U.S. Marine Corps officer, retired California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer and firearms instructor (he was on duty for the infamous 1992 L.A. Riots), founder & President of Gunfighter Ltd. Combat Shooting Methods Inc. in Chula Vista, California, and author of the excellent books Dynamic Training Concepts and Winning a High-Speed, Close-Distance Gunfight—adds:

“I thought was worth noting is Sig responded that in their literature provided with the handgun it advised not to carry with a round in the chamber. Just my opinion, if that’s the level of confidence they have in their 320, why should I trust it? This is a duty pistol. We carry rounds in the chamber. If they don’t think it can be trusted with a round chambered then table it off the market. Wow.”

Lou has a point there. Not being able to carry a round in the chamber could cost a police officer and/or armed citizen his/her life if he/she has to waste a precious split second or two racking the slide to chamber a round in response to an armed assailant.

Personal Experiences and Observations

I myself have fired the SIG P320/M17 at local rental ranges on a couple of occasions, and in that admittedly limited trigger time, I found it to be accurate, reliable, and ergonomically pleasing. However, I still found the Beretta 92FS/M9—admittedly an old sentimental favorite of mine—to be the sweeter shooter, especially at the 25-yard and 50-yard line.

That said, the owner of one of these local ranges told me on condition of anonymity that the P320s were “pieces of sh*t,” while a couple of staffers at one of the other local ranges (also speaking on condition of anonymity) told me that (1) their rental P320s had occurrences of the firing pin engaging while the slide was out of battery, and (2) one of their customers had a personally-owned P320 literally blow up in his hands!

On the other hand, several of my shooting buddies, including one of my old high school friends along with an Israel Defense Force (IDF) combat-hardened veteran of the Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War, own P320s and absolutely rave about them, having fired thousands of rounds through them with nary a problem. Plenty of other SIG P320 fans echo these friends’ experiences and sentiments.

For the defenders and detractors of the SIG P320 alike, the controversy doesn’t look like it’s going to die down anytime soon.

NOTE: This article was first published on the author’s Patreon page, “The D’Orr-senal of Democracy.” Be on the lookout for his upcoming first book, “Five Decades of a Fabulous Firearm: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beretta 92 Pistol Series,” which will hopefully be published sometime this summer! Stay tuned, dear readers!