Cops are reselling 'problematic' guns that shoot on their own: report

A gun that's known to discharge on its own is being resold by multiple police departments, according to a Mother Jones report published in partnership with The Trace.

Police records and lawsuits have recorded at least 120 reports of the P320 discharging a bullet without the trigger being pulled, as of April 23, 2025. “Those shootings resulted in more than 110 injuries and at least one death,” Mother Jones wrote.

The weapon is made by SIG Sauer, which has denied these claims.

The Trace surveyed more than 60 law enforcement agencies whose officers once used the P320. More than 20 of them have removed the firearm from service. They found 12 agencies resold their P320s to the public.

Mother Jones said, “Cumulatively, these departments sent at least 4,000 P320s back into the commercial market.”

“If the primary function of law enforcement is to protect and serve, one would think that returning a problematic weapon to the public is not particularly consistent with that mission,” Jonathan Jacobs told The Trace. The director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics at John Jay College added, “The ethical issues here are very, very plain.”

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Reselling old weapons is not uncommon for law enforcement agencies. They claim reselling old service weapons is done for budget reasons. It’s also a popular option for gun buyers because “they’re relatively inexpensive and often in good condition.”

Critics of the sales argued that “introducing used police weapons to the civilian marketplace risks fueling crime.”

“There are situations in law enforcement where you’re going to have to do the right thing, even if it’s going to cost you financially,” Modoc County Deputy Sheriff and a national police ethics expert Ed Obayashi told Mother Jones.

The California-based deputy believes departments should not be reselling the P320s if they believe the guns to be defective.

“In addition to the 12 agencies that resold P320s to dealers, two returned their guns to SIG Sauer,” The Trace found.

Only one police department opted not to resell its P320s, Mother Jones reports.

The department, located in Orange, Connecticut, has the guns locked away at headquarters.

“If we believe a firearm might be defective, we don’t agree with putting that weapon back on the street,” said Max Martins, the department’s assistant chief. “What if we traded in the guns, then a civilian bought one of our old ones, and there was an accidental discharge? You don’t want that on your conscience.”

The P320 is one of the most popular handguns in America. According to reports, it has been used by officers at more than a thousand law enforcement agencies across the country.

The firearm is still for sale on Sig Sauer’s website. The maker declined to comment to Mother Jones or The Trace and directed questions to p320truth.com, a website it created about the gun.