Look, Sig has a problem with the 320 whether it is real or a publicity issue or both. In my opinion the only way to handle this is not to double down on this. Makes you look corporate, screw the masses type of company. What if the engineers approached this differently and said how could we do some additional design work and prevent non-command discharges from being able to happen. Make a change and this becomes the 320A1 and move on down the road. Right now they are just doing donuts in the cul-de-sac. The 320 will be forever known as the gun that could go off on it’s own, true or not. Ford Pintos were known to have exploding gas tanks and Chevy Corvairs were known for just catching fire. These incidents were few and far between but the reputation has followed them to this day.
Obviously there is a problem with this weapon that needs addressing. Manufacturers should own up .
I am showing my ignorance here but is it standard practice for police officers and military personnel
to holster a side arm with a round in the chamber ?
Yes they do, more so police departments than Military.
Drop safe issue. One of many video’s.
Exploding Sig.
I must admit, I have not researched this topic in some time. The last time I did, a lot of these videos were not available to me, It would be hard to say at this point that the gun doesn’t have potential issues. Still, I’ll say that this issue, if real, is a ready made excuse for any mishaps due to plain old jackassery, which I’m sure some instances not captured on film surely were.
I have never dropped any of my three Sigs on purpose, however I will concede that at just the right angle, with sufficient force, you could take enough pressure off the striker to disengage it. If you know how the safety on a 60 mm mortar round works, then it would comparable to that. The downward momentum allows part of the mechanism to disengage from the sideward spring loaded safety. Watch SPR again if you don’t know what I mean. Still, with my favorite gun here beside me, I’ve yet again experienced no spontaneous firings today. I did do my own trigger work on it though, which is voluntary service that Sig will perform for those who want it, I do have it pointed in a safe direction though, as any responsible gun owner would.
I am a long time gun owner /shooter but mostly long guns and shotguns at that . Very minimal experience with handguns although I own two , one semi automatic and one revolver. Let me be the first to say that I have no law enforcement experience or military experience. I can understand the logic of carrying a weapon with a live round in the chamber on certain duties as the time to cycle the action to chamber a round may mean life or death. The story of the policeman giving a talk while a child fingered the holstered weapon makes me wonder why this weapon had a round in the chamber - also the video in a police station where several officers are hands on with a detainee and the gun discharged while holstered. It would seem prudent that policy should be adjusted for certain low risk situations if indeed policy requires “ one in the pot “ .
This not a criticism of law enforcement or the military - on the contrary I applaud them and recognize we are fortunate to have them .
Many of you on this site are very knowledgeable about this sort of thing and I welcome your input on this .
RT
The drop failure might be correctable. You can see the trigger move backwards on impact. Glock and others have that safety leaver on their triggers that prevents backward movement unless depressed. This might also solve some of the problems found by the Wyoming gun guy in that the trigger could not move backwards a millimeter with the trigger safety in place. The fix could be as simple as a new style trigger.
After the four firearms rules, we train every officer to not allow anyone to touch or get near their gun, no matter who it is. A child touching or handling a gun while the officer is speaking is a failure on the part of that officer. Should never have happened.
As for the gun discharging while struggling with a detainee, I have seen instances where a subject will grab a gun-might be for simple leverage, might be to get control of it-and depending on holster type, they can get a finger in and reach the trigger. Police officers are trained that it is a deadly force situation. Once the gun comes out odds are very high that it will be used on the officer. A lot of the problems associated with law enforcement and accidental discharges are training issues. Bullets are expensive, and it is cheaper to train on de-escalation rather than focus on high risk and liability issues.
The problems with the Sig remind me of the S&W models 39 and 59 that my department issued long ago. They had a reputation for going off if dropped or bumped hard. There were several accidents placing guns in lockers and one where a gun was dropped on a dashboard and went off, striking an officer and leaving him paralyzed. Firing pin could move under minor impact and my department went back to revolvers.
Odd repeat of slide motion striker drop by Janis (with some trigger depression).
My M18 is a boxed range gun carried Israeli in the lock box case if it is left in a house fire. Not trusted for EDC. Glock 43XMOS with Tritium dots and Stream light is one in the chamber plus 17. Anything else is a stick
Finally got the BRN-4 built into a shoot able weapon.
The last part was the BCG, and I was able to get it in the nick of time. They quickly went out of stock.
The BCG comes in two options; one is black melonite coated while the other hard coat anodized with a hard chromed bolt.
I also found an old surplus Eotech SU-231 holosight and decided to slap it on. I think it looks nice.
Hopefully I will get some range time here soon, then add a few bolt-ons that I find at the gun show this weekend, like a hand stop, MLOK covers and a flashlight.
Things that make you go 
Are they saying that it wasn’t an unintentional discharge now, and that someone shot the airman?
It takes a special kind of wife to email you a link like this:
Remembering sharpshooter Elizabeth “Plinky” Toepperwein – Memories of San Antonio
The most unusual, odd twist out of this Minn shooting is the Brandon Herrera and Donut Operator Youtube review that suggested the agent that disarmed the guy had an ND as he moved away from the rugby scrum with the Sig 320 pointed at the street. The sound of the misfire may have contributed to the reactionary shooting. Guns don’t kill people, SIG pistols do? https://youtu.be/DCiaqJvbW_A
Saw that video and I agree with them.
Generally I agree that it was a cluster F. No one was in charge, a mob take down and chaos.
Some thoughts. I hear a lot about what officers can do for “officer safety” that you would go to jail for. That includes killing you. Think if you shot the officer for your own safety? Police by law have a huge legal advantage over you the citizen. He or she can escalate or deescalate an encounter. Why is it that they say in a traffic stop you should keep your hands on the wheel? Don’t make unnecessary moves. Don’t handle anything until told to do so. There are many things they say you should do when encountering the police because…. Is there a similar set of things to do when encountering a nonpolice officer? If you look at the encounter, who was applying all the force? Yes the lady and Alex were being annoying, but the force was being applied by the officers. They were pepper spraying grabbing, pushing, tackling. Was Alex swinging and fighting? was he brandishing the weapon? Someone saw the pistol in the waist band and yelled gun. (New info for me, is the question of a negligent discharge by the agent. At no point have I heard anything before or after about that) and while on the ground on all fours, Alex was shot multiple times by two agents. Stop for a moment….If the two officers who did the shooting, saw Alex on all fours with no weapon in hand, why was he shot. Wouldn’t that indicate the shot (if there was one) came from elsewhere? Could it have been from the lady they shoved to the ground? (that is to say a shot that was never mentioned before or since this video)
If there is a shooting and officers arrive on seen and see a person with a gun and shoot the person with the gun, they are hero’s. If the person was not the shooter, they are covered because how would they know the person was not the shooter. The law supports them. If you are at a shooting and you see the person with a gun and shoot them. You might get arrested for that. If you shoot them and they were not the shooter, you are going to jail. The law is not on your side.
From the video I saw I think the ND from the gun removed for the guy who got shot caused the other two agents to shoot
So…in the confusion is the shooting justified? I say that because in court the argument would be about what the officers knew at that second. In court, if you had shot, that argument probably would not hold up. You are responsible for every round fired, and to say oops I made a mistake would not keep you out of prison or out of civil court.