Philadelphia Army Veteran and Weapons Specialist Latest to Sue Gun Maker Sig Sauer Over Its Allegedly Defectively Dangerous P320 Pistol

George Abrahams was wounded by the holstered gun without his hand ever touching it.

PHILADELPHIA, PA (June 14, 2022) – Philadelphia U.S. Army veteran George Abrahams, 53, was a combat weapons specialist and is a lifelong advocate of strict gun safety. Today he became the latest wounded owner of a Sig Sauer P320 handgun – the embattled pistol that plaintiffs allege is prone to unintended firing – to file a civil lawsuit in Philadelphia County against the New England manufacturer and the local gun seller, said his attorneys at Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky PC. 

George Abrahams

SMB filed the sweeping negligence and products liability complaint (Abrahams v. Sig Sauer, Inc. et al. Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas); joining similar lawsuits throughout the country filed by SMB and others. The lawsuits have been brought by wounded active duty law enforcement personnel, including a Federal agent from suburban Philadelphia, and other trained and experienced gun users against the gun maker that has consistently refused to issue a safety recall. This latest civil action also names as a defendant Firing Line, Inc., the Philadelphia gun retailer that sold Mr. Abrahams the weapon in October 2018. The un-commanded shooting on June 19, 2020 shattered his right upper thigh and knee, rendering him permanently injured and limiting his career as a contractor.  The complaint seeks a jury trial along with compensatory and punitive damages.

Enough is enough. P320 owners like Mr. Abrahams and our many other clients have been seriously wounded and the safety of innocent bystanders is being jeopardized”, said SMB’s Robert W. Zimmerman. “As asserted in the complaint, this gun has had dozens and dozens of unintended discharges, the vast majority associated with highly trained, safety-conscious users whose guns fired without a trigger pull. And Sig Sauer has chosen to compromise, creating a safety double standard by which the military P320 version is safer than the non-military version.

The military P320 model featured a manual safety to guard against unintended firing, but the hundreds of thousands of P320s sold to police, federal law enforcement, and civilians had no such safety device. “Mr. Abrahams served his country with distinction as an enlisted field artillery specialist in the U.S. Army, but never in his wildest dreams did he ever think his own gun would put him in the cross hairs because of its defective and unsafe design,” added Mr. Zimmerman. “He knows first-hand the horror this gun can cause due to the weapon firing without command.”

Mr. Abrahams, a Northwest Philadelphia resident, who has been severely limited in his daily activities following the incident, said, “I’m very careful, respectful, and aware when it comes to firearms.  I was just walking downstairs in my house – and boom! – the holstered gun in my zipped pants pocket fired into my leg. I’m lucky the bullet didn’t hit a major artery, or strike a family member. I’m also grateful for the quick action of Philadelphia Police and ER doctors at Einstein, and now I look forward to being sworn before a jury in hopes that what happened to me won’t happen again to anyone else.”

Besides Mr. Zimmerman, the plaintiff’s legal team includes SMB’s Larry Bendesky and Daniel L. Ceisler.  “Like Mr. Abrahams, many veterans put their faith and trust in Sig Sauer because the Army did,” said Mr. Ceisler, a former Active Duty U.S. Army Captain who served with Special Operations in Afghanistan. “Sig Sauer equipped the Army model of the P320 with a key safety feature that they left off the civilian models. The fact is, it’s a different gun and it isn’t safe.” 

SMB represents more than 20 other P320 victims injured by Sig Sauer’s first pistol to feature a spring-loaded striker firing mechanism. They are uncovering more and more instances of unintended discharges, and continue to call upon Sig Sauer to remove this dangerous product from the market and recall those in the hands of law enforcement, federal agents, and civilians until the necessary safety devices, which have been used within the industry for years, are included.

Besides a copy of the newly-filed lawsuit, additional related information on the Sig Sauer litigation – and the gun’s troubled history – can be found at www.smbb.com/sig-sauer-p320/. 

Contacts:

Robert W. Zimmerman / rzimmerman@smbb.com / 267-872-3430
Steph Rosenfeld / steph@idadvisors.com