The problem with this is, most of the times there's an AD the investigation finds out that the cop lied. I remember one where P320 discharged in a cafeteria. By itself, yeah. And then CCTV video showed cop playing with it. So many such cases that there's no way to tell which one is real.
As far as Army go, they ran it through their tests and actually found the issues. They wrote it all up, SIG fixed issues, into the inventory it goes. I've not heard of any particular safety issue with M17/M18.
I heard that SIG initiated the change before Army was even aware, offered it for free, Army accepted. THEN they began production and Tank Command accepted as it was to their standard. The civilian P320s later got an update.
Note that all pistols offered for sale met industry and manufacturer standards at the time of release. Of course, that's like saying all drugs approved by the FDA met their standards, yet over 35% were later recalled. Gun makers do a lot better job at it - in this case, it was fixed before the .Gov pistols were even issued.
In this litiguous atmosphere where few accept responsibility for their negligence, we are seeing SIG being bullied as the latest target. It's notable that competitors are now reacting to contracts which require a removable FCU and it could be speculated that it brings increased pressure to word them more openly. Case in point, the Canadian army contract to replace the Hipower, which is stalled once again by a complaint which states exactly that: "We don't have an FCU and it's not fair!"
I also note that smaller organizations who abandon SIG's universally step backward and adopt a 35 year old auto pistol which isn't known to be advancing design progress, which is the precise issue here. Yet, that is exactly where they were in their early days, soundly chastised for innovation by the moribund pistol industry who was losing all the contracts. They are now acting like their competition did then, which signals how stale the company has become. They have had years now to respond, it's not rocket surgery and patents are exactly why Browning came up with the superior Hipower vs the 1911.
If your weapons are perfection, then step up to the next generation of auto pistols and claim your place.
