Canadian Military Says No Issues With New Service Pistols as Gunmaker Sig Faces Pressures in US

A Sig Sauer P320 handgun is shown at a gun store in Delray Beach, Florida, on Jan. 31, 2023. Raedle/Getty Images

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) says it has had no issues with its new pistol based on the Sig Sauer P320, as concerns have been raised south of the border about the gun misfiring and resulting in injuries and a death.

“It would be premature to react to the known functioning of the weapon based on an uninvestigated and unsubstantiated incident,” the CAF told The Epoch Times in an email.

The U.S. Air Force has been investigating the death of a 21-year-old airman during a fatal shooting on July 20. The Air Force Global Strike Command, a major division of the U.S. Air Force, announced following the death that it was suspending the use of the M18 pistol, which is based on the P320.

For years, Sig Sauer has faced allegations that the P320 has a design flaw that causes it to, on rare occasions, fire without the trigger being pulled. While a 2022 class-action lawsuit against the gun manufacturer around the pistol was rejected, in 2024 a man was awarded $2.3 million in damages after being shot by his gun without pulling the trigger.

In March 2025, a group of police officers, military veterans, and civilians also filed 22 civil lawsuits against Sig Sauer, alleging the gun fired without the trigger being pulled and had caused serious injuries.

The CAF adopted the C22 and C24 pistols, which are based on the P320, back in 2023 to replace the aging Browning 9-mm pistol. Canada’s special forces had adopted the P320 prior to this, but its introduction into service was temporarily delayed after a 2020 incident where a Joint Task Force 2 member accidentally shot himself with the handgun during training.

Sig Sauer worked with the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command following that incident, and later noted that the gun had been found to be safe but had discharged because of the “use of an incorrect holster not designed for a P320.”

The CAF notes that the C22 has a 17-round magazine, can be fired ambidextrously, and is “highly reliable” and can function in extreme heat, cold, and humidity, or in wet and muddy conditions.

The CAF told The Epoch Times there have been “no misfires of the C22 and C24 pistols since introduction of the fleet,” and thousands of soldiers have received training with the handguns and expended millions of rounds of ammunition.

The military added that the CAF is continuing to monitor all the “objective evidence available” around the gun, while performing internal technical testing. “The safety of our members is critical when handling weapons for purposes that are within the scope of their day-to-day work operations,” the CAF said.

Sig Sauer said in a July 29 statement that the P320 remains one of the “safest, most advanced pistols in the world,” which exceeds all industry safety standards.

The company said the P320 “cannot, under any circumstances,” fire unless the trigger is pulled to the rear, and this has been verified through “exhaustive testing by Sig Sauer engineers, the U.S. Military, several major federal and state law enforcement agencies, and independent laboratories.”