More Plaintiffs Sue Gunmaker Over Pistol They Say Goes Off by Itself

A pistol made by Sig Sauer and sold to law enforcement and civilians alike is prone to going off without the trigger being pulled, a defect that has led to dozens of injuries over the past several years, a lawsuit from a growing list of plaintiffs alleges.

George Abrahams, a 53-year-old Army veteran and painting contractor in Philadelphia, filed a lawsuit against Sig Sauer in June. Twenty more people, many of them members of law enforcement, joined the federal lawsuit this week. It's the latest in a string of litigation targeting the New Hampshire-based gun manufacturer over its P320 model.

Abrahams said his holstered Sig Sauer pistol discharged while he was going down the stairs, causing a serious leg injury.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Philadelphia and calls for unspecified monetary damages, recounted dozens of other alleged unintended discharge incidents involving that model, of which lawyers estimate there are about a half-million in circulation in the U.S.

The P320 “is the most dangerous pistol for its users sold in the United States market,” the plaintiff's lawyers alleged in court documents.

Abrahams said he holstered his P320, put it in the pocket of his athletic pants and zipped it up before going downstairs. “All I did was come down the stairway and there was a loud explosion, and then the excruciating pain and bleeding,” he recalled in an interview in June.

The bullet tore through his right thigh, exiting above the knee. Abrahams said fatigue, spasms and numbness are among the lingering effects, two years after the shooting. “You have to relive this trauma every day,” he said.

Abrahams' lawyers said that the Army forced changes in the military version of the P320, but that the nonmilitary version owned by Abrahams remained defective, even after the gun-maker launched a “voluntary upgrade” program in 2017.

“The voluntary update did not stop this problem from continuing to happen,” said Robert W. Zimmerman, Abrahams’ lawyer, citing the lack of a standard manual safety as a major issue.

Zimmerman’s firm, Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky, represents plaintiffs in several other pending cases against Sig Sauer over the pistol, including in Pennsylvania, New York, Florida and Oklahoma.

“Every single client we’ve spoken with has said they want to make sure this doesn’t happen to somebody else,” Zimmerman said. “The last thing any of us needs is a gun that can fire without the owner’s finger pulling the trigger.”

In 2019, the unintentional discharge of a Philadelphia transit officer’s holstered P320 prompted SEPTA, the city's transit agency, to remove all of its P320 handguns from service and replace them with Glocks.

Sig Sauer has settled at least one federal class action lawsuit involving the P320, involving pistols made before 2017, offering refunds or replacement guns to purchasers.

Sig Sauer did not provide a comment to NBC10 on Thursday. However, the company has denied the gun had a problem in the past. 

In September, the gun manufacturer won a lawsuit over the same issue. 

In that case, a New Hampshire federal judge wrote the plaintiffs didn’t show Sig Sauer knew of any defect before advertising the gun “won’t fire unless you want it to.” 

Abrahams said he remains a fan of the company, just not the P320. 

“I believe they make good products but this is not one of them,” he said. 

Zimmerman told NBC10 the lawsuit is neither anti-gun or pro-gun. Instead, he said his goal is to seek damages for clients who were injured by any malfunction and to stop Sig Sauer from selling the P320.