New Jersey sues Sig Sauer for selling State Police defective handguns

By Daniel Terrill

Troopers of the New Jersey State Police in formation in May 2014. (Photo: NJSP/Facebook)
Sig Sauer, one of the largest firearm contractors in the world, has been named in a $2.5 million lawsuit alleging the New Hampshire gun maker sold the New Jersey State Police defective duty pistols and then failed to rectify the problem.
Represented by  New Jersey’s attorney general, the lawsuit argues Sig breached a contract to supply 3,000 handguns to State Police, but “the weapons had a serious malfunction” that was not adequately fixed.
According to the complaint filed in late April, uncovered by The Trace, the gun maker filled the contract in September 2014, but when Troopers used the new P229 pistols during a qualification session, they experienced “Failure to Extract” malfunctions. This type of malfunction means “the weapons failed to eject the spent shell casing from the barrel after being fired, causing the next cartridge to become jammed behind the casing, and resulting in an inability to continue firing the weapon.”
“An FTE malfunction renders the gun unfit for police use because a Trooper may be unable to fire more than one round of ammunition in a life-threatening situation,” the lawsuit says.
For 16 months after initially experiencing the malfunction,

Source: Guns.com