The SIG Sauer P320 has well-documented history of unintended discharges. There’s a lot of speculation on why that is – SIG claims it’s user negligence, which seemed plausible at first – police are notorious for poor gun handling, and “Glock leg” was a thing due to police negligent discharges while reholstering – until there was video evidence of the things discharging while being properly handled.
Last month, they decided to drop this stinker of a statement (archive.org link), claiming that all of this is made up by – this is a verbatim quote! – “anti-gun groups, members of the mainstream media, trial attorneys, and other uninformed and agenda-driven parties”. Yeah. They went full conspiracy.
…but, quietly, they updated the P320’s manual.
As of March 10, the current version of the manual on SIG’s website was P/N 8501909-01 rev 11, copyright 2023 (archive.org, locally hosted), which stated:
Do not load a cartridge into the chamber until you are ready to use the firearm.
(For those unaware, standard practice is to carry with a round chambered, because if you’re carrying, you’re supposed to be ready to use the firearm.)
As of April 7, the current version was P/N 8501909-01 rev 14, copyright 2025 (archive.org, locally hosted), which referenced a separate Safety Warnings manual. The current version as of that date was P/N 10000236-01 rev 01 (archive.org, locally hosted), which had the exact same warning as revision 11 of the P320 manual, in the Manual Safety section.
Some time in the past couple days – PDF created date on this revision is 2025-04-22 15:53:05, and modified is 15:53:53 the same day – they published a new manual for the P320, P/N 8501909-01 rev 15, copyright 2025 (archive.org, locally hosted), with this in all caps and bold in the Manual Safety section:
THE MOST EFFECTIVE SAFETY IS TO CARRY YOUR PISTOL WITHOUT A ROUND IN THE CHAMBER, AND TO LOAD A ROUND IN THE CHAMBER ONLY WHEN READY TO FIRE.
…yeah. This screams them trying to get out of lawsuits by claiming that they warned people to not carry with a round in the chamber, even though this would arguably only apply to people who bought a gun with revision 15 of the manual, and goes against standard practice of carrying firearms nowadays (unless you’re in the IOF or something).
Seems like an even more effective safety would be to not carry – or even own – a P320, or maybe even any SIG Sauer product, but that’s just me.