A new report from Mother Jones and The Trace found the Wyoming Highway Patrol, along with almost a dozen other law enforcement departments across the country, traded in a gun known to be faulty for resale to the public, after choosing to stop using it themselves. The particular gun is one of the most popular in America. But lawsuits claim it unintentionally caused injuries to law enforcement officers and civilians nationwide and at least one death.
Wyoming Public Radio’s Nicky Ouellet talked to The Trace’s Ava Sasani, who’s been investigating the issue.
Editor’s Note: This conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Nicky Ouellet: Your article is titled, “A gun deemed too dangerous for cops, but fine for civilians.” What is this gun and what makes it so dangerous?
Ava Sasani: It is the Sig Sauer P320. When it was first put on the market back in 2015, there were reports that the gun fires when dropped. Then Sig Sauer, rather than having a recall, did a voluntary upgrade program where it seems like they would adjust the gun to fix this drop fire problem.
But what happened after that program was more and more reports that people would say, ‘My gun was fully in the holster. My hand was nowhere near the trigger, and the gun just fired.’
Obviously, because of that, there have been injuries. There's been at least one death that seems to be because of this gun. So it seems to be associated with a lot more accidental discharge accidents than you would typically see with a handgun like this.
NO: That's interesting, because this is one of the most popular handguns in America. It's used by law enforcement agencies across the country. Do you know what makes this gun so popular?
AS: I think part of it is the cost. When you compare [it] to similar guns by its competitors, like Glock, the price is friendly.
When it was first put on the market, Sig Sauer got this very lucrative contract with the federal government. That lends a sort of credibility to the company that makes it more attractive to law enforcement departments, and then that popularity in turn makes it popular among civilian gun buyers. So it's this reputation that they've been able to maintain, in addition to price.
NO: You also found that some police departments resold these P320 to gun dealers who sold them to the public, and this was to offset the cost of buying new weapons for those law enforcement agencies.
AS: That process of reselling guns, similar to how you would trade in an old car when you bring it to a car dealer, the value of your used car gets put towards the new purchase. That's very similar to how this trade-in process works. That is a time-honored tradition among U.S. law enforcement.
For example, Kitsap County Sheriff's Office in Washington is one of the departments that decided to resell their P320s. They got $300 back on each of these used guns.
The impression we got from many of the law enforcement leaders that we spoke to was, ‘We've always done this trade-in process. Why would we switch because of the P320?’ There was no sense of needing to depart from this time-honored tradition. You know what I mean?
NO: Sure. I mean, some of these incidents of accidental discharge were even caught on officers' body cameras.
AS: Yeah, absolutely. That cognitive dissonance was interesting to behold. I think the explanation that we got from some departments was, ‘Well, it is not our responsibility as law enforcement officers to say what guns you should be able to sell.’
NO: How widespread was it that law enforcement agencies were reselling the P320s?
AS: We spent two months surveying almost 70 law enforcement agencies where we knew that the officers, at least at one point, used the P320. More than 20 of them decided to prohibit the gun because of safety concerns. Of that 20, 12 resold through this trade-in process.
NO in narration: Sasanis outlet, The Trace, reports Wyoming Highway Patrol (WHP) was among the 12 departments that traded in their P320s. In a press release from April 2025, WHP said an “unintentional discharge involving the sidearm” influenced their decision to replace the Sig Sauer for operational and safety considerations. The guns were traded in through a firearms distributor chosen through a competitive bidding process. WHP said trading in allowed for a cost-effective upgrade while ensuring officers have high-quality equipment to perform their duties safely. The department now uses the Glock 45 as its standard-issue sidearm. “This selection reflects the agency’s commitment to officer safety, training efficiency, and responsible fiscal management,’ the release ended.
Sasani says the agency had little more to share with her reporting partner.
AS: Nationally, I think that was one of the hardest agencies to get information from.
NO: WPR has filed a records request with the department for more information and will share updates when we hear back.
NO in conversation: What has Sig Sauer said about these unintentional discharges?
AS: The company has been pretty steadfast in maintaining that there is no mechanical issue with the gun. They have said in and out of court that these hundred-plus allegations, those accidents happened because of user error and the gun is safe to use.
When we spoke with gun shops around the country for this story, there's very much a divide. Many people, I would say, do agree with the company's position, which is that these are just cases of people being irresponsible with their weapons.
To that, I would say, we do have a lot of these incidents on video, particularly with law enforcement. We have video where we can see, or at least it appears that the person's hands are nowhere near the gun.
