TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin has filed a lawsuit against firearm manufacturer Sig Sauer, Inc., alleging the company violated state consumer protection and public safety laws by continuing to sell its P320 handgun despite a “well-documented propensity to fire unintentionally,” Platkin’s office stated.
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Filed in New Jersey Superior Court on Oct. 16, the suit seeks a mandatory recall of the P320 and a halt to what officials say are deceptive safety claims in the company’s marketing, according to the statement. State officials say the pistol has caused numerous unintentional shootings in the state, including one that Platkin alleges caused the death of a law enforcement officer.
According to the suit, Detective Lt. Walter Imbert, a 20-year law enforcement veteran and U.S. Army veteran, was fatally shot on April 8, 2023, when his P320 discharged while he was cleaning it.
The suit alleges that the weapon has unintentionally discharged during routine law enforcement activities, such as walking, sitting, bending down, removing a holster or cleaning the gun.
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“We ask law enforcement officers to put their life on the line every single day to protect the public. Gun manufacturers have a moral duty to ensure that those brave officers are not put in harm’s way because of defective weapons,” said Platkin.
According to the lawsuit, Sig Sauer continues to market the P320 as safe and has initiated a public relations campaign in support of the pistol. The state’s complaint alleges the company has misled buyers by claiming the weapon “won’t fire unless you want it to.”
The suit also notes that in the U.S. military’s procurement of the weapon, it required Sig Sauer to add a manual, external safety, alleging that failures of the weapons’ internal safety lock caused unintentional discharges. It also claims that the company is misleading customers by marketing the P320 as “chosen by the U.S. Military” and the “official sidearm of the U.S. Military” without disclosing that the M17 and M18 military versions have an external safety.
The suit calls for Sig Sauer to fund a full recall of P320s sold in New Jersey, stop making safety claims the state deems false, and pay damages, restitution and enforcement costs, according to the statement.
Sig Sauer issued a statement in response to the suit, firmly denying “numerous false and unsubstantiated claims,” and calling the suit an “attack on the firearms industry.”
In its rebuttal, Sig Sauer rejected claims that the U.S. Army considered the P320 unsafe before requiring the addition of a manual safety.The company emphasized that the military required all submitted firearms to feature manual safeties and that Sig Sauer was ultimately awarded the contract, leading to the adoption of the M17 and M18 variants as the official U.S. military sidearms.
The manufacturer further disputed the notion that the P320 can discharge without a trigger pull, calling it “incorrect.” It pointed to the dismissal of nearly 20 lawsuits related to the handgun, as well as judicial rulings that excluded expert testimony that failed to replicate unintentional discharges under controlled testing conditions, according to the statements.
Calling the P320 “one of the safest, most advanced pistols in the world,” Sig Sauer said the platform meets or exceeds all industry safety standards and has been extensively vetted by military and law enforcement agencies globally.
The company says it will move to dismiss the lawsuit, characterizing the complaint as politically motivated and unsupported by technical evidence.
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