In Chicago, where politics and policing intersect more often than policy and practicality, the latest courtroom decision on the Sig Sauer P320 has the city’s officers — and Second Amendment advocates — on edge.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer has now ordered the Chicago Police Department to stop using the Sig Sauer P320 handgun, effectively accelerating a phase-out the department had already been slow-walking. Her ruling came after the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 pressed for judicial intervention, arguing that officers were being left in limbo with a sidearm that had become a lightning rod of controversy.
The judge’s language was direct: any officer with access to “a handgun that meets appropriate standards” must immediately swap out the P320. The ruling might sound like a simple safety measure, but it carries implications far beyond the city’s police armory.
Sig Sauer’s P320 has long been one of the most popular and widely distributed service pistols in America — selected by the U.S. Army as the M17 and M18 variants, and trusted by countless law enforcement agencies nationwide. But over the past several years, a trickle of lawsuits and isolated incidents alleging “unintended discharges” has drawn the gun into the crosshairs of anti-gun politicians and activist groups eager to portray it as unsafe.
Sig Sauer maintains otherwise. In its June lawsuit against the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, which banned the pistol from its training academies, the company described the P320 as “one of the most tested, proven, and chosen sidearms in small arms history.” Sig insists the weapon cannot fire without a trigger pull and features “multiple redundant safeties” designed to prevent accidental discharges. Still, to quiet public fear and fend off litigation, the company offered a voluntary “upgrade” for owners — a rare move for a manufacturer that has already passed more than a dozen national and military testing standards.
The broader concern here isn’t just about one model of firearm. It’s about the emerging strategy of the gun control lobby: targeting individual handguns one by one, through court orders and administrative bans, rather than attempting a sweeping legislative assault on the Second Amendment.
We’ve already seen that playbook in action. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has openly pushed for a citywide prohibition on Glock sales, echoing similar efforts by Baltimore’s Brandon Scott and Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison. Backed by groups like Everytown for Gun Safety, these local leaders are coordinating lawsuits that could effectively outlaw the sale of entire product lines — first Glocks, and now possibly Sigs — by arguing the guns are “public nuisances.”
What’s happening in Chicago could easily become the next domino. A federal judge has now created precedent for removing the P320 from service, even as Sig Sauer continues to defend its reputation in court. For a mayor eager to score political points with gun control activists, that’s a tempting opportunity to widen the net.
It’s a familiar story: start small, with a “reasonable restriction” framed around safety, and before long the definition of “unsafe” expands to encompass nearly every semi-automatic handgun on the market.
Whether the Sig P320 has genuine safety issues is a question that can be tested — literally, and scientifically. But the campaign surrounding it has less to do with data and more to do with ideology.
