Saturday night special
Encyclopedia
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
used in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
for any inexpensive handgun
Handgun
A handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....
. 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 federal law, though some states define "Saturday Night Special" or "Junk Guns" by means of composition or materials strength. Low cost and high availability make them attractive to low-income buyers despite their shortcomings.
Controversy
Laws prohibiting or regulating the purchase of inexpensive handguns such as the Saturday Night Special are controversial in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. 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 gun industry has refused to take even basic measures to keep criminals and prohibited persons from obtaining firearms," NAACP President/CEO Kweisi MfumeKweisi Mfume
Kweisi Mfume is the former President/CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , as well as a five-term Democratic Congressman from Maryland's 7th congressional district, serving in the 100th through 104th Congress...
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." The suit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein
Jack B. Weinstein
Jack Bertrand Weinstein is a United States federal judge in the Eastern District of New York. Judge Weinstein was appointed in 1967 by President Lyndon Johnson. From 1980 to 1988, he served as chief judge of the district. On March 1, 1993, he took senior status; however, unlike some senior...
, 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
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 InnisRoy Innis
Roy Emile Alfredo Innis is an African American civil rights activist. He has been National Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality since his election to the position in 1968....
, president of the activist group Congress of Racial Equality
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement...
(CORE), 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." (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
National Institute of Justice
The National Institute of Justice is the research, development and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice. NIJ, along with the Bureau of Justice Statistics , Bureau of Justice Assistance , Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention , Office for Victims of Crime ,...
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."
History of regulation attempts
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, in the form of the "Army and Navy" law, passed in 1879, shortly after the 14th amendment
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
and Civil Rights Act of 1875
Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was a United States federal law proposed by Senator Charles Sumner and Representative Benjamin F. Butler in 1870...
; 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. These were large pistols in .36 caliber ("Navy") or .44 caliber ("Army"), and were the military issue cap and ball
Percussion cap
The percussion cap, introduced around 1830, was the crucial invention that enabled muzzleloading firearms to fire reliably in any weather.Before this development, firearms used flintlock ignition systems which produced flint-on-steel sparks to ignite a pan of priming powder and thereby fire the...
blackpowder revolvers used during the Civil War by both Union and Confederate ground troops. The effect of the Army and Navy law was to restrict handgun possession to the upper economic classes.
The next major attempt to regulate inexpensive firearms was the Gun Control Act of 1968
Gun Control Act of 1968
The Gun Control Act of 1968 , by president Lyndon Johnson, is a federal law in the United States that broadly regulates the firearms industry and firearms owners...
, 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 Röhm (RG)
Röhm (RG)
Röhm, often referred as simply RG, is a German brand of firearms and related shooting equipment. Since 2010 Röhm RG is a brand name of UMAREX GmbH & Co. KG.- History :...
. The Act also had the effect of banning the import of high quality pocket pistols such as the Browning 1910
FN Model 1910
The FN Model 1910 was a blowback-operated, semi-automatic pistol designed by John Browning and manufactured by Fabrique Nationale of Belgium.-Development:...
and the Walther PPK
Walther PPK
The Walther PP series pistols are blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols.They feature an exposed hammer, a double-action trigger mechanism, a single-column magazine, and a fixed barrel which also acts as the guide rod for the recoil spring...
, which were very popular among police officers as backup guns, since police use was not a "sporting purpose" and the backup guns failed the points system on basis of size.
The Gun Control Act had other unintended consequences. The original Glock models
Glock pistol
The Glock pistol, sometimes referred to by the manufacturer as Glock "Safe Action" Pistol, is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Glock Ges.m.b.H., located in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria. The company's founder, engineer Gaston Glock, had no experience with firearm design or...
imported from Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and used by many U.S. police departments, had to be equipped with fragile adjustable sights to gain enough points to be imported as "target pistols"; these were replaced by Glock in the U.S. with the original rugged fixed sight, thus creating the original, non-importable configuration desired for police service use. All compact models have "target grips" in the form of finger grooves molded into the plastic, and Glock's .380 ACP
.380 ACP
The .380 ACP pistol cartridge is a rimless, straight-walled pistol cartridge developed by firearms designer John Browning. The cartridge headspaces on the mouth of the case. It was introduced in 1908 by Colt, and has been a popular self-defense cartridge ever since...
model is still not available in the US due to its inability to make the required number of points for import.
Most 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, demand for quality compact handguns or police service pistols beyond the capacity of domestic manufacture led either to domestic manufacture of guns banned from import (Smith and Wesson began making the Walther PPK) or to establishment of U.S. factories by foreign makers like Beretta.
The demand for inexpensive handguns still existed and a number of new companies were formed to fill that gap. In an effort to cut costs, many of these guns were made with cast zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
components, rather than the more typical machined or cast steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
. While zinc is far less strong and durable than steel, it is strong and durable enough for the small-caliber defensive handguns in question. It is also rust-proof, which is an advantage for defensive users who often invest less effort in maintaining their weapons than sporting enthusiasts.
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
Polymer
A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units. These subunits are typically connected by covalent chemical bonds...
framed guns such as those made by every major firearms manufacturer (with the exception of Colt), 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 specifically ban inexpensive powder cast metals), redundant 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 often left undefined). 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. Some of these legal restrictions are based on product liability
Product liability
Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause...
law; a gun should not discharge when dropped. Others, such as requiring loaded chamber indicators, are controversial.
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 unattended in police cruisers as backup weapons to have locking devices to prevent unauthorised access). Law enforcement is also specifically exempted from these bans and regulations.
Regulation in Canada
In Canada, the 1995 Firearms ActFirearms Act, 1995
The Firearms Act, 1995 is the Canadian law pertaining to the right to possess a firearm, means of transportation and offenses relating to the violation of this act.In addition to the law's passage, the Canadian Firearms Registry System was added in 2003....
(known as Bill C-68 before passage) classified handguns with a calibre of .25 or .32, or having a barrel length of 105 mm or shorter, as "prohibited" weapons. This provision (now included in Section 84 of the Criminal Code of Canada
Criminal Code of Canada
The Criminal Code or Code criminel is a law that codifies most criminal offences and procedures in Canada. Its official long title is "An Act respecting the criminal law"...
) appears to have been specifically aimed at "Saturday night specials". Exceptions are made for target pistols in these calibres used in international shooting competitions.
Origin of the term
In his book Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out, civil rights attorney and gun scholar Don KatesDon Kates
Don Kates is a retired American professor of constitutional and criminal law, and a criminologist and research fellow with The Independent Institute in Oakland, California...
found racial overtones in the focus on the Saturday Night Special ("niggertown Saturday night special"). Even gun control advocate Robert Sherrill
Robert Sherrill
Robert Sherrill is an American investigative journalist and longtime contributor to The Nation, Texas Observer, and many other magazines over the years including Playboy, the New Republic and the New York Times Magazine....
claimed: "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 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
Fred Graham
Fred Graham is the chief anchor and managing editor of Court TV.Graham was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and graduated from West End High School in Nashville, Tennessee. He later received a B.A. from Yale University in 1953, an LL.B...
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 such 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
.25 ACP
The .25 ACP centerfire pistol cartridge is a semi-rimmed, straight-walled pistol cartridge introduced by John Browning in 1905 alongside the Fabrique Nationale model 1905 pistol...
."
The Oxford English Dictionary notes that the descriptor "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 restricts the materials that can be used in the manufacture of said gun, targeting zincZinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
castings, low melting point
Melting point
The melting point of a solid is the temperature at which it changes state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium. The melting point of a substance depends on pressure and is usually specified at standard atmospheric pressure...
s (usually 800 degrees Fahrenheit
Fahrenheit
Fahrenheit is the temperature scale proposed in 1724 by, and named after, the German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit . Within this scale, the freezing of water into ice is defined at 32 degrees, while the boiling point of water is defined to be 212 degrees...
), powder metallurgy
Powder metallurgy
Powder metallurgy is the process of blending fine powdered materials, pressing them into a desired shape , and then heating the compressed material in a controlled atmosphere to bond the material . The powder metallurgy process generally consists of four basic steps: powder manufacture, powder...
, and other low-cost manufacturing techniques. As nearly all guns made this way are chambered for low pressure cartridges, such as .22 Long Rifle
.22 Long Rifle
The .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge is a long established variety of ammunition, and in terms of units sold is still by far the most common in the world today. The cartridge is often referred to simply as .22 LR and various rifles, pistols, revolvers, and even some smoothbore shotguns have...
and .25 ACP
.25 ACP
The .25 ACP centerfire pistol cartridge is a semi-rimmed, straight-walled pistol cartridge introduced by John Browning in 1905 alongside the Fabrique Nationale model 1905 pistol...
, these techniques provide sufficient strength for the low powered cartridges 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
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
area, such as Bryco Arms
Bryco Arms/Jennings Firearms/Jimenez Arms
Jimenez Arms, also known as "J.A.", is an American firearms manufacturer based in Henderson in Nevada. The company was started in August 2004 using the molds and machinery from bankrupt Bryco Arms and currently makes four models of firearm.-Bryco Arms:...
, Jimenez Arms
Bryco Arms/Jennings Firearms/Jimenez Arms
Jimenez Arms, also known as "J.A.", is an American firearms manufacturer based in Henderson in Nevada. The company was started in August 2004 using the molds and machinery from bankrupt Bryco Arms and currently makes four models of firearm.-Bryco Arms:...
, Jennings Firearms
Bryco Arms/Jennings Firearms/Jimenez Arms
Jimenez Arms, also known as "J.A.", is an American firearms manufacturer based in Henderson in Nevada. The company was started in August 2004 using the molds and machinery from bankrupt Bryco Arms and currently makes four models of firearm.-Bryco Arms:...
, Raven Arms
Raven Arms MP-25
The MP-25 is a .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol developed by George Jennings in the late 1960s. In 1970, Jennings designed the inexpensive MP-25 pistol and founded Raven Arms, which was also known as the original Ring of Fire company...
, and Phoenix Arms. All of these past and present companies are collectively known as the "Ring of Fire." Their guns sell for as little as US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
50 new. Other legislation targets specific inexpensive models by highly reputable manufacturers such as Colt
Colt's Manufacturing Company
Colt's Manufacturing Company is a United States firearms manufacturer, whose first predecessor corporation was founded in 1836 by Sam Colt. Colt is best known for the engineering, production, and marketing of firearms over the later half of the 19th and the 20th century...
, Taurus
Taurus (manufacturer)
Forjas Taurus is a manufacturing conglomerate based in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Beginning as a tool and die manufacturer, the company now consists of divisions focusing on firearms, metals manufacturing, plastics, body armor, helmets, and civil construction.-History:Taurus produced its first...
, Smith & Wesson
Smith & Wesson
Smith & Wesson is the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States. The corporate headquarters is in Springfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1852, Smith & Wesson's pistols and revolvers have become standard issue to police and armed forces throughout the world...
and Ruger
Sturm, Ruger
Sturm, Ruger & Company, Incorporated is a Southport, Connecticut-based firearm manufacturing company, better known by the shortened name Ruger. Sturm, Ruger produces bolt-action, semi-automatic, full-automatic, and single-shot rifles, shotguns, semi-automatic pistols, and single- and double-action...
.
Safety, gun violence, and criminal use statistics
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 politicsGun politics
Gun politics addresses safety issues and ideologies related to firearms through criminal and noncriminal use. Gun politics deals with rules, regulations, and restrictions on the use, ownership, and distribution of firearms.-National sovereignty:...
, to imply easy availability to those who are legally prevented from owning firearms, such as convicted criminals and minors
Minor (law)
In law, a minor is a person under a certain age — the age of majority — which legally demarcates childhood from adulthood; the age depends upon jurisdiction and application, but is typically 18...
. 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. (Guns Used in Crime: Firearms, Crime, and Criminal Justice—Selected Findings July 1995, NCJ-148201).
Most guns used in violent crimes are large caliber revolver
Revolver
A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...
s, although semi-automatic
Semi-automatic firearm
A semi-automatic, or self-loading firearm is a weapon which performs all steps necessary to prepare the weapon to fire again after firing—assuming cartridges remain in the weapon's feed device or magazine...
s 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. In Pittsburgh, a change in preferences towards semi-automatic pistols occurred in the early 1990s, coinciding with the arrival of crack cocaine
Crack cocaine
Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...
and rise of violent youth gangs. The choice in guns, and the change from revolvers to semiautomatics, mirrors the choice in defensive weapons made by police and the legal private citizen market.
Nonetheless, three of the top ten types of guns involved in crime (as represented by police trace requests
) in the U.S. are widely considered to be Saturday Night Specials; as reported by the ATF
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a federal law enforcement organization within the United States Department of Justice...
in 1993, these included the Raven Arms
Raven Arms MP-25
The MP-25 is a .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol developed by George Jennings in the late 1960s. In 1970, Jennings designed the inexpensive MP-25 pistol and founded Raven Arms, which was also known as the original Ring of Fire company...
.25 caliber, Davis P-380 .380 caliber, and Lorcin L 380 .380 caliber. 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.
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. Even prolific gun critic Robert Sherrill
Robert Sherrill
Robert Sherrill is an American investigative journalist and longtime contributor to The Nation, Texas Observer, and many other magazines over the years including Playboy, the New Republic and the New York Times Magazine....
admitted he found no instance where a user was killed or even seriously injured by failure of a Saturday Night Special. Firearms sold in most countries are required to pass certain safety tests, particularly a proof test consisting of firing a special high pressure round (proof load) which far exceeds the European C.I.P.
Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'Epreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives
The Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'Epreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives is an international organisation whose members are 14 states, mainly European....
or U.S. SAAMI
Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute
The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute is an association of American firearms and ammunition manufacturers...
pressure maximum for the round (see internal ballistics
Internal ballistics
Internal ballistics, a subfield of ballistics, is the study of a projectile's behavior from the time its propellant's igniter is initiated until it exits the gun barrel...
). However, the United States Government does not require firearm manufacturers in the United States to proof test their barrels, although most U.S. makers do exceed proof standards simply to avoid product liability lawsuits. If there is any weakness in the firearm, then the proof load should damage or destroy the firearm; if it passes the proof test, that is considered "proof" that the individual firearm has safe operating margins and receives a proof mark.
External links
- Bryco-Jennings, Jimenez Arms Forums Owner's and fan's forum.