Saturday Night Special

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Saturday Night Special

The phrase Saturday night special (SNS) is a colloquial term used in the United States and Canada for any inexpensive handgun, especially a mousegun/pocket pistol. Saturday night specials have been defined as compact, inexpensive, small-caliber handguns with perceived low-quality; however, there is no official definition of "Saturday night special" under US or Canadian federal law. Some states define "Saturday night specials" or "junk guns" by means of composition or materials strength. Low cost and high availability make these weapons attractive to many buyers despite their shortcomings. In the late-19th century and early-20th century, they were commonly referred to as suicide specials.

The term "Saturday night special" came into wider use with the passing of the Gun Control Act of 1968. The term (and the gun control act itself) have been described as racist in origin because the act banned the importation and manufacture of many inexpensive firearms which were typically purchased and owned by low-income blacks.

The issues

Laws prohibiting or regulating the purchase of inexpensive handguns such as the Saturday night special are controversial in the United States. Saturday night specials are a legislative concern because of their offensive use by criminals and defensive possession by potential victims, particularly in low-income high-crime neighborhoods in large urban areas. 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

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 suit was dismissed by US 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.

Economic class and racial inequality

Because the price of a firearm can determine who is able to buy it, the elimination of inexpensive firearms could have a direct effect upon those of lesser means. Roy Innis, president of the activist group Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and a member of the National Rifle Association's governing board. "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." (CORE filed as an amicus curiae in a 1985 suit challenging Maryland's Saturday night special/low-caliber handgun ban.) The Wright and Rossi evaluation of the 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." CORE filed a brief in the 2001 United States v. Emerson case stating that the term "saturday night special" refers to "nigger-town saturday night".

Research contradicts the price-based Definition

While Saturday night specials are commonly perceived as inexpensive, and therefore disposable after the commission of a crime, criminal behavior does not always conform to this expectation. A 1977 statistical survey of the "Saturday night special" concept by the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and several police departments across the nation showed that there is no clear statistical relationship between the price of a firearm and its likelihood to be used in a crime. While inexpensive weapons made up a large portion of the handgun market in 1974, 1975 and 1976, high-end weapons were represented by a ratio of almost 2:1. A survey of incarcerated felons in 1983 by the US Department of Justice showed that criminals use small-caliber, small-frame, inexpensive handguns in less than three percent of violent crimes.

Origin of the term

In his book Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out, civil rights attorney and gun scholar Don Kates found racial overtones in the focus on the Saturday night special. Gun control advocate Robert Sherrill said: "The Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed not to control guns but to control blacks."

The earliest known use of the term "Saturday night special" in print is in the August 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..."

U.S. Senator Birch Bayh, in 1971 hearings on amending the Gun Control Act, indicated that the term "Saturday night special" originated in Detroit, Michigan. 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."

Legal "junk gun" definitions

Legal definition of a "junk gun" usually restricts the materials that can be used in the manufacture of the 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 chambered for low-pressure cartridges, such as .22 Long Rifle and .25 ACP, these techniques provide sufficient strength and desirable weight and cost savings. The low-strength materials and cheap construction result in poor durability and marginal accuracy at longer ranges, but as most of these guns are designed for use in self-defense, accuracy and durability 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 area, such as Bryco Arms, Jimenez Arms, Jennings Firearms, Raven Arms, and Phoenix Arms, collectively known as the "Ring of Fire".