Sig Sauer, faced with lawsuits over a popular pistol, gets protection in New Hampshire

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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Faced with mounting lawsuits over a popular pistol, New Hampshire-based Sig Sauer asked for — and got _ protection in the form of a new state law that makes it harder to take the gunmaker to court.

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Supporters in the Republican-led Legislature said the law was needed to help a major employer. The lawsuits say Sig Sauer’s P320 pistol can go off without the trigger being pulled, an allegation the company denies.

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The law covers all gun manufacturers and federal firearm licensees in product liability claims regarding the “absence or presence” of four specific safety features. One of those features is an external mechanical safety that people suing Sig Sauer say should be standard on the P320, based on its design. Claims can still be filed over manufacturing defects.

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Those who have sued Sig Sauer in New Hampshire and elsewhere include police, federal law enforcement officers, and other experienced gun users from multiple states who say they were wounded by the gun.

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The manufacturer has prevailed in some cases. It is appealing two recent multimillion-dollar verdicts against it, in Pennsylvania and Georgia.

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George Abrahams a U.S. Army veteran and painting contractor in Philadelphia who won his case, said he had holstered his P320, put it in the pocket of his athletic pants and zipped it up before going downstairs.

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“All I did was come down the stairway and there was a loud explosion, and then the excruciating pain and bleeding,” he told The Associated Press in 2022. He said the bullet tore through his right thigh.

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The company, which employs over 2,000 people in a state with permissive gun laws, says the P320 has internal safety mechanisms and “has undergone the most rigorous testing and evaluation of any firearm, by military and law enforcement agencies around the world.” It says the problem is user error or incompatible holsters, not the design.

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“Do you want people to be able to sue car manufacturers because they sell cars that don’t have air conditioning?” state Rep. Terry Roy, a Republican from Deerfield, told the House during debate in May.

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Opponents criticized the bill as a special exemption in liability law that has never been granted to any other New Hampshire company.

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“I think there is a difference between helping out a large employer and creating an exemption that actually hurts people and doesn’t give them their day in court,” state Rep. David Meuse, a Democrat from Portsmouth, said in an interview. His district covers Newington, where Sig Sauer is headquartered.

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A 2005 federal law gives the gun industry broad legal immunity. New Hampshire was already among 32 states that have adopted gun immunity laws in some form, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Some states also have repealed gun industry immunity statutes or weakened them.

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Sig Sauer seeks help

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A Sig Sauer executive asked New Hampshire lawmakers for help in April, two weeks after a Pennsylvania-based law firm filed its most recent lawsuit in federal court in Concord on March 26 over the design of the P320. The firm represents over 100 people who have filed such lawsuits, including more than 70 in New Hampshire.