here in Tampa a teen got possession of his Dad's firearm and killed a friend in the house

family is suing Sig basically claiming the gun 'just went off'... (deeper pockets no doubt)

would be interesting to know if this particular P320 had the 'upgrade' components

https://www.fox13news.com/news...t-killed-boy-in-2019

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Bradley Hulett's family suing maker of 'dangerous and defective' gun that killed boy in 2019

By Haley Hinds Published December 17, 2021 11:21PM

Parents sue SIG SAUER over teen's shooting death

TAMPA, Fla. - A new lawsuit has been filed in the shooting death of Bradley Hulett. The 15-year-old's family is shifting focus from the person who was holding the gun, to the company that made the gun.

The lawsuit, filed December 9, alleges that the SIG SAUER firearm that killed their son two years ago was defective and fired on its own. And they're not the only ones named in the wrongful death complaint.

December 13, 2019, four friends were at a Tampa Police officer's home in Lithia while he was away. They got ahold of his personal gun. And 15-year-old Christopher "Ramsey" Bevan accidentally shot and killed Hulett.

Though Bevan was charged with manslaughter, Hulett's family agreed the now-17-year-old would complete an extensive Pretrial Intervention Program instead of prison time.

Now, Hulett's family is shifting blame to SIG SAUER, alleging their P320 firearm was "dangerous and defective." In the lawsuit, they allege the company failed to provide warnings the gun could fire "without the trigger even being pulled."

That's what they claim happened in 2019. According to the complaint, "although the magazine was empty, there was a single, Tampa Police Department-issued bullet in the chamber."

State Attorney Andrew Warren and Hulett family attorney Anthony Rickman explain what led them to the 'resolution' proposed for the Bradley Hulett case, including the possibility of a manufacturing defect in the gun.

State Attorney Andrew Warren voiced concerns about the weapon at a press conference in November.

"The gun involved is a SIG SAUER P320," Warren said. "It has a defect that allows the gun to fire without the trigger being pulled. This has been seen with examples across the country and right here in Tampa."

A Tampa Police Reserve Officer says his department-issued service weapon fired without pulling the trigger, seriously injuring him. The 30-year veteran of the force is now suing the company that manufactures the firearm.

SIG SAUER acknowledged in 2017 that "dropping the P320 … may cause an unintentional discharge." They offered a free, voluntary program allowing owners to "upgrade" to a newer version with safety enhancements. Tampa PD sent back their issued P320s to be refitted.

Hulett's father, Brad is suing SIG SAUER for Strict Liability and Negligence, as well as Shoot Straight where the P320 was bought. He's also suing TPD, where Officer Edwin Perez registered his personal weapon, for negligence. He's suing all three for infliction of emotional distress.

The complaint says Hulett's parents are seeking damages in excess of $30,000. Legal analyst Imran Ansari, a partner at Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins, said this lawsuit offers an alternate explanation to the original manslaughter case.

"This alternate explanation is that this perhaps was not a reckless, and certainly not an intentional killing, but perhaps a defect in that firearm that caused this tragedy," Ansari said.

A deal, announced Tuesday, would prevent jail time for the Hillsborough County teen accused of killing his friend Bradley Hulett with a TPD officer's gun back in 2019. Instead, Ramsey Bevan will help preach the importance of gun safety.

Former Tampa officer Bob Northrop has also filed a civil suit against SIG SAUER after he said his service weapon, the P320, fired on its own, shattering his leg and ankle. His legal team represents nearly two-dozen other cases.

"SIG needs to get up and stand up and face up to what they've done and recall this gun," Northrup told FOX 13 in August.

As for the Hulett case, Ansari said, "That's going to be up to the plaintiff's lawyers to really get that evidence through expert witnesses, through analysis on the firearms, to see if they could connect that dot and say that this was a defective firearm in the first instance."

The Huletts are seeking a jury trial. As for those named in the lawsuit, Tampa PD said they don't comment on pending litigation. We have not heard back from SIG SAUER or Shoot Straight.

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Damages in excess of thirty thousand? A penny-anty law suit?

It will be interesting to see if the weapon was "upgraded," but Sig knew of this issue long before the public ran with it on youtube. What's surprising is that there aren't hundreds of these law suits out there. Especially given that Sig lied about it to the public...hell, came here on Sigforum and lied about it, and had big names representing them come here and lie about it...and then resorted to calling it an "upgrade."

It's been hashed to death. It seems that once more, it's a police officer's weapon that's the focus, though ironically not the police officer claiming it "just went off" this time. It always seems to rotate around a cop.

Whether the firearm was modified per the "upgrade" or not, the P320 amounts to a cocked and unlocked weapon at all times, and doesn't take much to discharge. A civil suit, so preponderance of the evidence showing that the weapon was known to go off, and no need to prove that the kids finger wasn't on the trigger...just that the weapon could have discharged without a trigger pull.

Seems the shooter has been excused. The owner who failed to secure his weapon, however, should be the focus, here.

The "upgrade" was 2017. The shooting was 2019.

This involves a Tampa PD officer, while another Tampa PD officer is suing Sig for shooting himself...same law firm handling two dozen other cases. Coincidence? Don't believe it.

$30,000 with grow into $1,000,000+ before the lawsuit is over.

quote:

"This alternate explanation is that this perhaps was not a reckless, and certainly not an intentional killing, but perhaps a defect in that firearm that caused this tragedy," Ansari said.

It's the gun's fault...

Perhaps Firearms should NOT be accessible to minors!
Perhaps one should NOT point a Firearm at ANYONE or ANYTHING they do not intend to kill and/or destroy!

^^^^^^

Hmmmm perhaps you are correct.


There have been enough “stories” to keep me personally away from the 320 but this one reeks or more bullshit then most of the others.

Look folks, if you have kids or even unknown or know irresponsible adults in your house SECURE YOUR WEAPONS. This stuff should NEVER HAPPEN.

The Alec Baldwin defense.

The P320 "defect" was that it could discharge if dropped a very certain way, not that it just discharges at random.

I would bet that the people involved are lying and not following basic safety priciples of handling a firearm in hopes of avoiding liability and maybe even cashing in on their lies.

Yea, the 320 with the upgrade is just as safe or unsafe depending on viewpoint as any striker gun. If the gun “just goes off” you should be able to recreate that.

Sad story but that stupid fucking teen got a hold of a stupid fucking cops almost unloaded gun pointed it at his buddy and pulled the trigger. Lots of stupid floating around Tampa.

if the guy owns a gun, he should own a way to lock it up from kids, bad cop

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
Damages in excess of thirty thousand? A penny-anty law suit?

This is just a jurisdictional,statement. Suits have to be for at least 30k to establish Circuit Court jurisdiction. With parental pain and suffering, this is clearly a 7 or 8 figure suit.

I'm not even slightly interested in the unsecured pistol aspect of this case; this wasn't a 5 year old that had no idea what they were doing. This was a teen fucking around with dad's gun.

As for the gun "going off" all by itself, anyone that knows anything about guns knows that story is horseshit.

Standard case of removing the magazine thinking that "unloads" the gun and then pointing and pulling trigger at a friend as a "joke".

There was a cop that did that to a buddy with a 3rd gen S&W because he assumed it had a magazine disconnect. It didn't - that particular department's guns did not have the magazine disconnect.

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
There have been enough “stories” to keep me personally away from the 320 ...

Some original P320's that haven't been back to Sig for their "voluntary upgrade program" can possibly discharge if dropped just a certain way, such that they strike a suitably hard surface at just a certain angle.

That's it.

You would think that if the claim was true then somebody with some expertise would be constantly chambering a round trying to get it to go off again with out pulling the trigger.....on the gun that was used.

If I was Sig I'd take the gamble and offer to do this 20 or 30 thousand times....

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
There have been enough “stories” to keep me personally away from the 320 ...

Some original P320's that haven't been back to Sig for their "voluntary upgrade program" can possibly discharge if dropped just a certain way, such that they strike a suitably hard surface at just a certain angle.

That's it.

I realize that and I don’t bemoan the product to others, just saying that for me personally it’s not a wagon I want to hitch to so to speak.

I got a speeding ticket by a bike cop in Surprise, AZ two yrs ago, who told me a guy in his agency had his P320 AD. He said the cop had undone his duty belt and lost his grip, it, obviously laden with a lot of gear, drop to the ground, and his P320 discharged. Cop was unhurt. Not sure if I believe it, didn't read about it anywhere else.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
As for the gun "going off" all by itself, anyone that knows anything about guns knows that story is horseshit.

Sympathetic juries made up of parents watching crying partents, are not necessarily anyone that knows anything about guns or horseshit.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
I got a speeding ticket by a bike cop in Surprise, AZ two yrs ago, who told me a guy in his agency had his P320 AD. He said the cop had undone his duty belt and lost his grip, it, obviously laden with a lot of gear, drop to the ground, and his P320 discharged. Cop was unhurt. Not sure if I believe it, didn't read about it anywhere else.

These mishaps do seem to revolve around cops. Almost exclusively.

So, the pocket of the father of the boy who killed his friend is too shallow. The logical step is blame the gun and go after big money. That's the American way.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
There have been enough “stories” to keep me personally away from the 320 ...

Some original P320's that haven't been back to Sig for their "voluntary upgrade program" can possibly discharge if dropped just a certain way, such that they strike a suitably hard surface at just a certain angle.

That's it.

The Colt Single Action Army will do that. Hammer down on a LOADED chamber, drop it and strike the hammer spur, it could go off. That is why they loaded 5 and lowered the hammer on an empty chamber.

The 1911 - same. Goes to Colt inventing the Series 80, which had a trigger controlled firing pin block to stop that.

Dropping a gun is in and of itself the first problem, that they go off is because we don't tolerate guns that won't. The firing mechanism engineering for the last 150 years is to get a primer ignited. Now with gun sales of 20 million a year to NEW gun owners, compared to 9 million in 1999, we have quite a few more people who have no training and no clue. They are also "children of the Mall" who return things on Monday because the party is over and they are laundering money in their budget. Asking people to take responsibility for their mishaps? It why more Americans have dash cams now? Cops wear cams to prove they were assaulted first, not the way others try to spin stories.

The original report of a 320 firing came from a competitor gun dealer who described the abuse he subjected the gun, and it took hundreds of drops to force it to fire. According to him. Someone reproducing his experiment hasn't come forward yet, but the accusations have. His testing protocol was made up at the moment and wasn't Industry Standard, nor did it conform to military protocol for drop testing either.

There is a lot of fake news over it back then and that disinformation is still carrying forward, which basically proves what Goebbels said, tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth. That is used a lot in politics lately, too.

Here's an excellent video on how the 320 safeties work. Draw your own conclusions, but I don't think the 320 fires itself.

https://youtu.be/dPKMu47uWXQ

quote:

Originally posted by MWC:
Draw your own conclusions, but I don't think the 320 fires itself.

Of course it doesn't. Unfortunately, since some early P320's had been demonstrated to discharge under a particular set of circumstances, every ND from now until judgement day will be blamed upon an inherent design flaw.