In 2022, the Milwaukee Police Department moved to replace its SIG Sauer P320 pistol — one of the most popular handguns in America, and one that’s been used by law enforcement agencies across the country — with weapons from another manufacturer, after body camera footage captured an officer’s holstered gun firing a bullet into his partner’s leg. It was at least the third time in three years that a Milwaukee officer’s P320 had allegedly fired without a trigger pull.
“There is no higher priority than the safety of the people who protect our city,” said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson at an October 2022 news conference announcing the switch. “Unexplained discharges, they have injured people. That’s completely unacceptable to me.”
At the same event, Milwaukee’s police chief revealed that, to offset the cost of the new weapons, the department would be reselling its P320s to a gun dealer. Soon, the old P320s — deemed too dangerous for the city’s officers — would be available for purchase by civilians.
Milwaukee isn’t alone. The decision there, The Trace’s Ava Sasani and Champe Barton report, follows a pattern that has been repeated in cities across the nation as police departments reevaluate their use of the P320 amid mounting concerns about the weapon’s safety. Our story was published in partnership with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and Mother Jones.
From The Trace
A Gun Deemed Too Dangerous for Cops, but Fine for Civilians: Police are reselling their SIG Sauer P320 pistols — alleged in multiple lawsuits to fire without the trigger being pulled — to the public.
Can a Greener Philly Reduce Crime?: In a bid to improve public safety, quality of life initiatives are bringing brighter lights and more green spaces to Philadelphia.
What to Know Today
Attention, New Yorkers: This Wednesday, May 21, The Trace’s Chip Brownlee is co-moderating a New York City mayoral candidate forum on gun violence and public safety. The free event, hosted by New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, will take place at The New School at 5 p.m. More info and registration here.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a mother can proceed with a lawsuit alleging excessive force against the Houston police officer who shot and killed her son during a traffic stop in 2016. The unanimous decision rejects a “two-second” rule that restricts use-of-force reviews to the moment an officer feels threatened, and directs lower courts to “consider all the relevant circumstances” when assessing such claims. [NBC/Courthouse News Service]
In 2023, Leroy Stelly Jr. shot and killed his New Orleans neighbor, Richard Bernard “Richie” Smith. Stelly was never charged — authorities in Louisiana, which has a “stand your ground” law, deemed the shooting justified. Smith’s mother mounted her own investigation, and unearthed a history of violent allegations against Stelly. She’s still asking police for justice. [The Guardian]
Surveys have shown that Americans across the political spectrum broadly express support for certain policies regulating gun access and use, yet conservatives are less vocal about demanding such policies be enacted. In a new study, researchers from the New Jersey Gun Violence Center sought to investigate whether that difference could be explained by perceived peer support. The answer? It can’t. [Preventive Medicine Reports]
After the Department of Education eliminated $1 billion in grants for mental health programs in schools — funding passed as part of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was sparked by the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — gun safety advocate and former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords wrote a letter pressing the agency’s secretary, Linda McMahon, to meet with the families of school shooting victims. In an appearance on CNN, Secretary of Education McMahon said that she would “like to have that opportunity,” and that mental health funding won’t be cut, but that the new budgeting process will “redetermine” those grants. [CNN]
New details have emerged about the detention and deportation of Merwil Gutiérrez Flores, a 19-year-old Venezuelan who had a pending asylum application and no criminal record when he was taken from his home in New York earlier this year. The day before Gutiérrez Flores and another migrant were taken into federal custody, the New York Police Department arrested them on gun charges that were never prosecuted. [THE CITY and Documented]
After the Civil War, the mythical idea of the Old West — invented by Samuel Colt to sell guns — gave way to the “gunfighter” era, the period that violent figures like Wyatt Earp and Jesse James inhabited, and that would become a subject of enduring American cultural interest. The template of that violence was created in Texas, argues writer Bryan Burrough, and the places it spread were much darker for it. [Texas Monthly]
Data Point
$13 million — the damages awarded by two juries in lawsuits against SIG Sauer over P320 discharges. [The Trace]
Non Sequitur
Treasure worth $10,000 was hidden in San Francisco. And then someone found it
“If you learned there was buried treasure in your city, would you drop everything and go look for it?” [NPR]