A $2.5 million lawsuit has been brought against firearms manufacturer Sig Sauer by the New Jersey State Police. In the lawsuit, the law enforcement agency alleges Sig Sauer of providing defective firearms for its state troopers and failing to fix the issue, despite multiple opportunities to do so.
According to the lawsuit, the New Jersey State Police signed a contract for the firearms in May of 2011. During the firearm’s initial testing, there were no issues. They became apparent after another firearms qualifications test in September 2014.
Sig Sauer replaced multiple parts of the guns, including the extracting pins and barrels, and eventually, the guns themselves. The primary issue with the firearms? They failed to eject the spent brass, causing the firearm to jam. The next round was unable to fire.
Sig Sauer thought the malfunction was from a faulty mold. After running a bunch of tests, they determined it was the barrel’s coating. They sent a new batch of barrels to the agency but the problem persisted.
The agency realized the models they received (P229 Enhanced Elite) and the models they tested (P229 Legacy) were different. Sig Sauer agreed to replace the firearms with the correct models but only delivered half the guns by their deadline of January 2016.
During that same month, the state police ran a combat firearms training course with the new guns, with Sig Sauer representatives in attendance. The firearms malfunctioned with both practice and duty ammo.
When representatives from the gun manufacturer inspected the shipment, five guns were declared “egregiously noncompliant” with the companies specifications. The problem was ultimately traced to the gun’s barrels but the state decided to return the guns in February of 2016.
The state police ended up buying Glock 17’s with SafariLand holsters.
In the agency’s complaint, they argue a malfunction that allows an officer to fire only one round in a life-and-death situation renders the firearm unfit for duty.
The state police spent $1.7 million for 3,000 Sig Sauer P229s and another $865,000 on holsters from another company. The agency wishes to be reimbursed for both costs, which they are out of.
