US Air Force Global Strike Command pulls use of the M18 pistol after fatal accident.

 

The Sig Sauer M18 compact pistol (top) next to a M17 full size pistol. The War Zone/US Army photo. 

The US Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) has pulled the use of the M18 pistol after a fatal accident at F.E. Warren Air Force base. The War Zone. The incident happened two weeks after an FBI report stating that the Sig Sauer P320 series of pistols, which the M18 is a variant of, can fire without the trigger being pulled. Though it hasn't been confirmed, there are rumors that the airman died after taking his pistol off and setting it on a desk, where it fired without warning. If true, the rumor is similar to a confirmed incident where Michigan State Police officer's M18 PRO LE, a civilian law enforcement version of the gun, fired in the officers holster while attached to the officer's hip. The Sig Sauer P320 has been criticized for a lack of safety, having a long known and supposedly fixed issue with "drop fires" where the gun could go off after being dropped or jostled. These issues, along with the FBI report, has caused many law enforcement agencies, including ICE, to ban the use of the pistol. Sig Sauer has denied that their pistols can drop fire and testers have not been able to duplicate the failure. It is unclear if other branches of the military will pull the M18, or if the full size M17 is affected by the same problems. 

My Comment:

Very disturbing report about the M18 pistol and one that might be the end of the weapon as a service pistol. The Sig P320 has been a disaster since it was released since it was released in 2014. There have been several lawsuits that Sig Sauer has lost due to the drop fire issue. Supposedly that issue was corrected but what really gets me is that those issues were known about the P320 before it was used as the base for the M18. 

But what is happening now is even worse, and Sig Sauer appears to be in full denial. This is not the only incident of a Sig Sauer P320 variant firing all on its own. The article mentioned the incident in Michigan but that's only the tip of the iceberg, there was a 2023 investigation by the Washington Post and The Trace that found at least 100 reports of the firearms just going off. (link paywalled). 

Until now, nobody had died from this issue. That seems to have changed. It is important to note that we don't have 100% confirmation that the death was due to the gun firing on its own. It could have been a drop fire, or it's possible there was some issue with the holster that caused the gun to fire. Of course, neither of those situations are good either, but until we get a full report we should consider that something else may have gone wrong. But, given the weapon was pulled and folks are being issued M4 rifles instead of their M18 pistols, I am guessing something serious happened. And even if this case is due to something else, it's clear that the Sig P320 has major problems and that the unintentional discharge problem is real.

I am guessing that things are going to get worse for Sig Sauer before it gets better. The whole situation reminds me of Remington and the R700 controversy. It was a similar issue where the R700, a bolt action hunting rifle, would go off without the trigger being press, leading to several deaths and a multitude of injuries. That was a major factor in why the company went bankrupt in 2020, and though I don't see that happening with Sig Sauer just yet, it's very possible that it could happen in the future. 

Sig Sauer has so far denied that the design of these pistols is a problem. They were able to fix the drop fire problem, supposedly, but they don't even acknowledge that the unintentional discharge problem is even a thing. So far it's not possible to recreate the problem in the lab, which is a real problem in terms of figuring out how to fix it. But I do think there is a serious problem with the design of the weapon. Supposedly the striker is always under pressure under their system and is released when the trigger is pulled, which is the exact opposite of most other handguns, which only put the striker under pressure when it is actively being fired. It's little wonder, if I am understanding this correctly, why the pistols would fail if this is the system they use!

For me personally, I wouldn't own any of the P320 variants. And I agree with ICE and all the law enforcement agencies that have banned the use of a firearm. I am not one to support the banning of a gun, but when a gun is this unsafe, there might be a reason to do so. 

If I had to carry one, and there are folks that have to because the P320 or M18 are the ones that are issued to them, or they simply can't afford to replace it now, I would not, under any circumstances, carry it with a round in the chamber. There are many folks in the gun community that say not carrying with a round in the chamber is foolish at best, fatal at worst, given the time taken to charge the weapon could be fatal in a gun fight. But I think in this case, even they would agree that it's not worth the risk. I don't really know which is more likely, dying in a gunfight, or having the gun go off in your holster, but given that gun fights are pretty rare, it's simply not worth it. 

The whole thing just reeks of graft though. Many folks were surprised that Sig Sauer was awarded the Modular Handgun System to replace the M9, when both Berretta (who had the M9 contract) and Glock had much better pistols that did not even have the drop fire problem. It goes back to the old military procurement problem in the United States. Berretta and Glock had superior products but they didn't have the lobbying leverage to win the contract, which left American service members fielding a pistol that certainly appears to go off on it's own. And now, if the reports are accurate, someone died because of it....