Saturday night special

Raven Arms MP-25, an example of a .25 caliber automatic type of gun commonly considered a Saturday night special.

The phrase Saturday night special is pejorative slang used in the United States and Canada for any inexpensive handgun. Saturday night specials have been defined as compact, inexpensive handguns with low perceived quality; however, there is no official definition of "Saturday night special" under any federal or state law ^[1][2]. Low cost and availability make them attractive to low-income buyers despite their shortcomings.

Controversy

Laws prohibiting or regulating the purchase of inexpensive handguns such as Saturday Night Specials are controversial in the United States. The two primary areas of contention relate to the availability of guns and the effect of purchase price upon the demographic of who buys them.

Availability

Some see the availability of handguns as a threat to the community ^[3]. In 2003, the NAACP filed suit against 45 gun manufacturers for creating what it called a "public nuisance" through the "negligent marketing" of handguns, which included models commonly described as Saturday Night Specials. The suit alleged that handgun manufacturers and distributors were guilty of marketing guns in a way that encouraged violence in black and Hispanic neighborhoods. "The gun industry has refused to take even basic measures to keep criminals and prohibited persons from obtaining firearms," NAACP President/CEO Kweisi Mfume said. "The industry must be as responsible as any other and it must stop dumping firearms in over-saturated markets. The obvious result of dumping guns is that they will increasingly find their way into the hands of criminals."^[4]. The suit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein, who ruled that members of the NAACP were not "uniquely harmed" by illegal use of firearms and therefore had no standing to sue^[5].

Economic Class

Because the price of a firearm helps to determine who is able to buy it, the elimination of inexpensive firearms has a direct effect upon those of lesser means. Roy Innis, president of the activist group Congress on Racial Equality, said "To make inexpensive guns impossible to get is to say that you're putting a money test on getting a gun. It's racism in its worst form." (The Congress on Racial Equality filed as an amicus curiae in a 1985 suit challenging Maryland's Saturday night special/low-caliber handgun ban.^[6]) The Wright and Rossi National Institute of Justice study (p.238) concluded: "The people most likely to be deterred from acquiring a handgun by exceptionally high prices or by the nonavailability of certain kinds of handguns are not felons intent on arming themselves for criminal purposes (who can, if all else fails, steal the handgun they want), but rather poor people who have decided they need a gun to protect themselves against the felons but who find that the cheapest gun in the market costs more than they can afford to pay."^[6]

History of regulation attempts

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Colt Army Model 1860 revolver

Colt Model 1861 Navy reproduction

The earliest law prohibiting inexpensive handguns were enacted in Tennessee, in the form of the "Army and Navy" law, passed in 1879, shortly after the 14th amendment and Civil Rights Act; previous laws invalidated by the constitutional amendment had stated that black freedmen could not own or carry any manner of firearm. The Army and Navy law prohibited the sale of "belt or pocket pistols, or revolvers, or any other kind of pistols, except army or navy pistols," which were prohibitively expensive for black freedmen and poor whites to purchase^[7]. These large pistols were .36 caliber (in the Navy versions) or .44 caliber (in the Army versions), and were the common cap & ball blackpowder revolvers used during the Civil War by both Union and Confederate soldiers, and were made by Colt and Remington, among other manufacturers. Both types (Army and Navy) were extensively used by ground troops, the Navy and Army nomenclatures notwithstanding.

The next attempt to regulate inexpensive firearms was the Gun Control Act of 1968, which used the "sporting purposes" test and a points system to exclude many small, inexpensive handguns which had been imported from European makers such as Rohm, and also had the effect of banning the import of high quality pocket pistols such as the Walther PPK (now made domestically by Smith & Wesson). The original Glock models imported from Austria, and used by many police departments, had to be equipped with fragile adjustable sights to gain enough points to be imported; these are replaced by Glock in the US with the original rugged fixed sight, thus creating the original, non-importable configuration.^[8] All compact models have "target grips" in the form of finger grooves molded into the plastic, and Glock's .380 ACP model is still not available in the US due to its inability to make the required number of points for import^[9].

Manufacturers in the US were not directly impacted by the Gun Control Act, as they were not subject to the import restrictions, and for the most part they did not manufacture compact, inexpensive handguns that competed with the banned imports. However, the sudden lack of new imports left a hole in the market; the demand for inexpensive guns still existed, but with no supply of new guns, a number of new companies were formed to fill the gap. In an effort to cut costs, many of these guns were made with cast zinc components, rather than the more typical machined or cast steel. While zinc is far less strong and durable than steel, for the small caliber defensive handguns in question, it was strong and durable enough.

More recent legislation against "junk guns" has targeted the zinc frames used in construction by specifying a melting point; however, this backfired when police departments began adopting polymer framed guns such as those made by Glock, H&K, and other manufacturers, which will burn at temperatures much lower than the commonly specified 800 °F. Legislators then changed the definitions to target size (barrel lengths under 3 inches), materials (such as zinc), low-cost manufacturing techniques (e.g., density requirements that exclude powder cast metals), safety requirements (trigger and/or main-spring locks, sizes too large for a child to use, drop tests), and "quality", "reliability", and "accuracy" (which are all left undefined).^{[citation needed]} The only apparent impact of such legislation is to force the manufacturers to either lose market share in some states (since such laws have only been instituted on a state-by-state basis) or to increase the cost of manufacture and thus increase the market price of the firearm.^{[citation needed]} Some of these legal restrictions are based on product liability law; a gun should not discharge when dropped. Others, such as requiring loaded chamber indicators, are potentially deadly to careless users, for any mechanical device can fail and the only safe course of action is to always treat a firearm as though it were loaded until a visual inspection of the chamber proves otherwise.^{[citation needed]} Other requirements, such as built-in trigger locking devices, might be acceptable on recreational or hunting firearms, but could prove fatal on a defensive weapon. It is a telling fact that while some police officers have been killed with their own weapons, no police departments are known to require officers to carry guns with locking devices installed (although some do require rifles and shotguns that are stored in the trunks of police cruisers as backup weapons to have locking devices installed.)^{[citation needed]} Equally telling is that law enforcement is specifically exempted from these bans and regulations — meaning, that they are able to purchase these so-called "junk guns" while the rest of the populace is not.^{[citation needed]}

Origin of the term

The earliest known use of the term "Saturday night special" in print is in the Aug 17, 1968 issue of the New York Times. In a front-page article titled Handgun Imports Held Up by U.S, author Fred Graham wrote, "... cheap, small-caliber 'Saturday night specials' that are a favorite of holdup men..."

Among some law enforcement officers, the term has also applied to home made or improvised weapons, such as "zip guns." The idea behind the slang being that such a weapon made during the week would be used in a crime over the weekend; Saturday night being the peak night for said crimes.

M.A. (Merle Avery) Gill's Underworld Slang, a dictionary published in 1929, includes an entry called "Saturday night pistol" with this simple definition: ".25 automatic."

The Oxford English Dictionary notes that the adjective "Saturday night" has been in use since 1847 to refer to activities taking place on or as on a Saturday night, especially in the form of revelry.

Legal "junk gun" definitions

Legal definition of a "junk gun" usually restrict the materials that can be used in the manufacture of said gun, targeting zinc castings, low melting points (usually 800 degrees Fahrenheit), powder metallurgy, and other low-cost manufacturing techniques. As nearly all guns made this way are in small calibers, such as .22 Long Rifle and .25 ACP, even these techniques provide sufficient strength for the low pressure cartridges and desirable weight and cost savings. The low strength materials and cheap construction do result in poor durability and marginal accuracy at longer ranges, but as most of these guns are very small pocket pistols designed for use as close-range backup defensive weapons, accuracy and durability over thousands of rounds are not primary design goals. Most guns targeted by the "junk gun" bans are made by a group of current or former manufacturers in the Los Angeles, California area, such as Bryco Arms, Jimenez Arms, Jennings Firearms, Raven Arms, and Phoenix Arms (the latter so-called because it "rose from the ashes" of Raven Arms, after the Raven Arms' factory fire). Their guns sell for as little as US$50 new. Other legislation targets specific inexpensive models by highly reputable manufacturers such as Colt and Taurus.

Safety, gun violence, and criminal use statistics

Main article: Gun violence in the United States

The term "Saturday night special" is often used disparagingly to emphasize the perceived lesser quality of the gun or, for political reasons relating to gun politics, to imply easy availability to those who are legally prevented from owning firearms, such as convicted criminals and minors. The term is used to allude that the only reason for the manufacture of such a gun is for use in crime; in fact, studies show that criminals prefer high-quality guns, in the largest caliber they can easily conceal. Research has shown that most criminals prefer guns that are easily concealable, large caliber, and well made (Guns Used in Crime: Firearms, Crime, and Criminal Justice--Selected Findings July 1995, NCJ-148201)^[10].

Most guns used in violent crimes are large caliber revolvers, although semiautomatics are becoming more common. A 1985 study of 1,800 incarcerated felons showed that criminals prefer revolvers and other non-semi-automatic firearms over semi-automatic firearms.^[11] In Pittsburgh, a change in preferences towards semi-automatic pistols occurred in the early 1990s, coinciding with the arrival of crack cocaine and rise of violent youth gangs.^[12] The choice in guns, and the change from revolvers to semiautomatics, mirrors the choice in defensive weapons made by police and the legal civilian market.

Nonetheless, three of the top ten types of guns involved in crime (as represented by police trace requests^[13] ) in the U.S. are widely considered to be Saturday Night Specials; as reported by the ATF in 1993, these included the Raven Arms .25 caliber, Davis P-380 .380 caliber, and Lorcin L-380 .380 caliber.^[14] However, the same study showed the most common firearm used in homicides was a large caliber revolver, and no revolvers of any kind appear on the top ten list of traced firearms^[13].

Despite the inexpensive manufacture of "Saturday night specials", they are manufactured to certain quality standards to ensure they are not dangerous to the shooter when used correctly. Firearms sold in most countries are required to pass certain safety tests, particularly a proof test. A proof test consists of firing a special high pressure round, which far exceeds the SAAMI pressure maximum for the round (see internal ballistics). However, the United States Government does not require firearm manufacturers in the United States to proof test their barrels, although most do, simply to avoid product liability issues. If there is any weakness in the firearm, then the high pressure round should damage or destroy the firearm; if it passes the proof test, then it is considered "proof" that the firearm's design has safe operating margins. Some "Saturday night specials" do, however, have reliability issues.

See also

• Jimenez Arms, the company with perhaps the most models of "Saturday night specials" currently sold new in pawnshops and elsewhere
• Raven Arms MP-25, a semi-automatic pistol often described as a "Saturday night special"

Notes and references

External links

• NRA Fact Sheet on Saturday night specials
• Brady Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence FAQ on Saturday Night Specials

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