The DC National Guard may soon be patrolling the streets of our nation's capital with a handgun famous for firing on its own.
Following news that National Guard troops in DC would soon carry weapons, journalist Marisa Kabas of The Handbasket reported that members of the Guard on duty in DC were being sent to firing ranges to make sure they know their way around M-17 pistols.
The M-17 is the military variant of the Sig Sauer P320, a handgun famous for accidental discharges. Controversy has swirled around the weapon in gun nerd circles for years as the number of incidents where it fires on its own has stacked up. Multiple shooting ranges won’t allow the P320 on the premises, ICE told its agents to stop using the gun, and a recently leaked 2024 FBI report confirmed it’s prone to fire at random.
And yet the National Guard is being trained to carry it on the streets of DC. According to messages and documents obtained by Kabas, members of the DC National Guard task force were “qualifying” with the M-17, meaning they can demonstrate proficiency with it and are cleared to use it during a mission. “According to two people familiar with the situation and whose identities are being kept anonymous for their safety, members of the DC National Guard task force assigned to patrol the streets of the nation’s capitol are qualifying—military speak for meeting training requirements—to carry and operate M-17 pistols,” Kabas reported.
The U.S. military started carrying the M-17 in 2017 after Sig won a contract to replace aging Beretta M9s and Sig M11s.
The gun has long been controversial, but the problems with it broke into the mainstream in July after Airman Brayden Lovan died at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. Early reporting indicated that Lovan had died from a gunshot wound. Days after his death, Air Force’s Global Strike Command suspended the use of M-18 pistols (a compact variant of the M-17) and people assumed the weapon’s infamous accidental discharge problems were to blame.
In the aftermath of Lovan’s death, gun nerds spent hours dismantling the gun online in an effort to explain its mysterious tendency to fire by itself. Matt Rittman, who makes YouTube videos under the name Wyoming Gun Project, discovered that the P320’s slide has a lot of give and that a combination of slight pressure on the trigger and wobbling the slide can make the gun discharge. It’s common enough that there are supercuts on YouTube that show law enforcement officer’s P320 firing when holstered. Rittman’s demonstration has been copied, memed, and reposted in gun nerd circles since his discovery.
On August 8, the Air Force announced it had arrested an unnamed airman in connection to Lovan’s death. The shot that had caused controversy around the P320 and sent gun nerds scrambling for answers looks to be anything but accidental. “Out of an abundance of caution and based on initial reporting, Air Force authorities ordered various safety precautions involving the M-18 after this tragic event,” an Air Force spokesperson told Task & Purpose. “Since then, the investigation has progressed and an individual has now been arrested on suspicion of making a false official statement, obstruction of justice, and involuntary manslaughter.”
Through all of this, gunmaker Sig Sauer has denied any wrongdoing. It issued multiple statements saying the gun is safe and that it only fires if the trigger is “moved to the rear.” It also provides a customer service phone number to people “impacted by a P320 range or a training provider ban” so Sig can “clarify any misinformation and provide the truth.”
Unless something changes, the M-17 will soon be on the streets of DC and in the hands of the National Guard as they conduct "presence patrols” on behalf of the Trump administration.
The D.C. National Guard did not return 404 Media’s request for comment.
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