Saturday night special

Template:POV check A Saturday night special is an American colloquial term for a small, inexpensive handgun. The term is considered highly prejudicial, as it implies that the gun in question would only be owned for criminal means. The more inoffensive, and legally preferred, term for this class of firearm is junk guns.

The term "Saturday night special" is a slightly shortened version of the original term, "niggertown Saturday night special," which dropped from common use around the late 19th century. B. Bruce-Briggs wrote in the Public Interest, "It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the 'Saturday Night Special' is emphasized because it is cheap and being sold to a particular class of people. The name is sufficient evidence—the reference is to 'niggertown Saturday night.'"

The term "Saturday night special" is often used disparagingly to emphasize the poor quality of the gun or, for political reasons relating to gun control, to emphasize easy availability to those who are legally prevented from owning firearms, such as convicted criminals and minors. The term is thought to indicate 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 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). Most guns used in violent crimes are large caliber revolvers, although semiautomatics are becoming more common. The choice in guns, and the change from revolvers to semiautomatics, mirrors the choice in defensive weapons used by police and the legal civilian market. Many criminals, a majority in the case of juvenile criminals, obtained their guns through theft, or through a known fence selling stolen guns. Thise make the issue of the original cost of the guns wholly (in the case of stolen guns) or largely (in the case of fenced guns) irrellevant.

Legal definitions of "junk guns" usually restrict the materials that can be used in the manufacture of said gun, targeting zinc castings, low melting points (usually 800 degrees F), powder metallurgy, and other inexpensive and marginal manufacturing techniques. As nearly all guns made this way are in small calibers, such as .22 Long Rifle and .25 ACP, the firearms are safe--all firearms are required by law to be proof tested with a special overpressure load (see internal ballistics). The low strength materials and cheap manufacture do result in poor durability and usually marginal accuracy, but as most of these guns are very small pocket guns designed for use as close range defensive weapons, accuracy and durability are not primary design goals. Most guns targeted by the "junk gun" bans are made by a group of manufacturers in the Los Angeles, California area called "The Ring of Fire", such as Bryco, Jennings, Raven, and Phoenix Arms. Their guns sell for as little as US$50 new, and despite the media and legal bias against them, are often purchased by poor but law abiding citizens for self defense. Other legislation targets specific inexpensive models by highly reputable manufacturers such as Colt and Taurus.

The earliest law prohibiting "junk guns" 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 had stated flat out that no Black freedman could 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 to purchase, and too large to carry concealed.

More recent legisation of "junk guns" targeted the zinc frames use in construction by specifying a melting point--this backfired when police departments began adopting polymer framed guns such as the Glock pistols, which will burn at temperatures much lower than 800 F. Legislators then changed the definitions to target size (barrel lengths under 3 inches), materials (such as zinc), techniques (density requirements that exclude powder cast metals), safety requirements (trigger locks, sizes too large for a child to use, drop tests), and "quality", "reliability", and "accuracy" (which are all left undefined). The only apparently impact of such legislation is to force the manufacturers to either lose markets (since such laws are state laws, not federal) or increase the cost of manufacture and thus the market price of the firearm. Some of these legal restrictions have merit--for example, a gun should not discharge when dropped from a reasonable height onto concrete. Others, such as requiring loaded chamber indicators, are potentially deadly--any mechanical device can fail, including a loaded chamber indicator; the only safe course is to always treat the firearm as though it were loaded until a visual inspection of the chamber proves that it is not. Other improvements, 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 many police officers are killed with their own weapons, few or no police departments require officers to carry guns with locking devices.

External link

• USDOJ report on guns used in crime (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/guic.htm)