Editing Saturday night special

{{Short description|Inexpensive, compact, small-caliber handgun}}
{{About|[[handgun]]s|other uses of the phrase|Saturday Night Special (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2022}}
[[File:Röhm RG-14 at Regan Presidential Library.jpg|thumb|300px|The [[Röhm RG-14]] is commonly considered a Saturday night special.]]

'''Saturday night special''' is a colloquial term in the United States and Canada for inexpensive, compact, small-[[caliber]] [[handgun]]s made of poor quality metal.<ref name=cook/> Sometimes known as '''junk guns''', some states define these guns by means of composition or material strength. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, they were commonly referred to as '''suicide specials'''.<ref name="abc1">{{cite book|last=Carter|first=Gregg Lee |title=Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law|edition=2nd|date=May 4, 2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0313386701|pages=516–519|url=https://archive.org/details/gunsinamericanso0001unse/mode/2up|url-access=registration}}</ref>

==Definition==
[[File:MP25 1.jpg|thumb|200px|The [[Raven Arms#MP-25|MP-25]] was made by [[Raven Arms]], which has been referred to as the first of the "Ring of Fire" companies, those known for producing inexpensive handguns.]]

The term "Saturday night special" refers to cheap guns used in poor neighborhoods. They are usually small, of small caliber, and often unreliable or inaccurate. A single definition is not easy to come by; while legislation in the United States has tried to define them as either "unsafe" or "of no legitimate purpose", these attempts to define are problematic.<ref name=cook>{{cite journal |title=The 'Saturday Night Special': An Assessment of Alternative Definitions from a Policy Perspective |first=Philip |last=Cook |journal=[[The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology]] |volume=72 |issue=4 |year=1981 |pages=1735–1745 |doi=10.2307/1143251 |jstor=1143251 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1143251 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The earliest known use of the term "Saturday night special" in print is in the September 29, 1917, issue of ''The Coffeyville Daily Journal'' (of [[Coffeyville, Kansas]]), referring to a "cheap revolver".<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84588072/fair-notes/ |title=Fair Notes |newspaper=The Coffeyville Daily Journal |page=1 |date=September 29, 1917 |access-date=September 2, 2021 |via=Newspapers.com |quote=When searched young Norville was found to be carrying a 'Saturday Night Special', or in other words a cheap revolver.}}</ref> In its August 17, 1968, issue, ''[[The New York Times]]'' printed a front-page article titled "Handgun Imports Held Up by U.S.", author [[Fred Graham (correspondent)|Fred Graham]] wrote, "... cheap, small-caliber 'Saturday night specials' that are a favorite of holdup men..."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/08/17/76963738.html?pageNumber=1|title=Handgun Imports Held Up by U.S.; ARMS UNIT BLOCKS HANDGUN IMPORTS|work=The New York Times |language=en|access-date=January 11, 2020}}</ref>

The term "Saturday night special" came into wider use with the passing of the [[Gun Control Act of 1968]] because the act banned the importation and manufacture of many inexpensive firearms, including a large number of revolvers made by [[Röhm Gesellschaft]]. With importation banned, Röhm opened a factory in [[Miami]], [[Florida]], and a number of companies in the United States began production of inexpensive handguns, including [[Raven Arms]], [[Jimenez Arms|Jennings Firearms]], [[Phoenix Arms]], [[Lorcin Engineering Company]], [[Davis Industries]], and [[Sundance Industries]], which collectively came to be known as the "Ring of Fire companies".<ref name="pbs1">{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/ring/companies.html|title=Hot Guns: Ring of Fire|work=Frontline|publisher=PBS|access-date=January 13, 2015|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230106043111/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/ring/companies.html|archive-date=January 6, 2023}}</ref>

Gun ownership advocates describe legislation restricting inexpensive firearms as possibly discriminatory in origin, designed to target low income and black gun owners.<ref name="Wolter">{{cite web |last1=Wolter |first1=Sam |title=The Continuing Relevance of the Saturday Night Special |url=https://firearmslaw.duke.edu/2021/08/the-continuing-relevance-of-the-saturday-night-special/ |website=The Duke Center for Firearms Law |access-date=July 7, 2022|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801203853/https://firearmslaw.duke.edu/2021/08/the-continuing-relevance-of-the-saturday-night-special/|archive-date=August 1, 2023}}</ref><ref name="jclc">{{cite journal|last=Cook|first=Philip|title=The Saturday Night Special: An Assessment of Alternative Definitions From a Policy Perspective|journal=Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology|year=1981 |volume=72|issue=4|pages=1735–1745|doi=10.2307/1143251|jstor=1143251|issn=0091-4169|oclc=803836960|url=https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6279&context=jclc|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name="abc1"/><ref name="jclc2">{{cite journal|last=Funk|first=Markus|title=Gun Control and Economic Discrimination: The Melting-Point Case-in-Point|journal=Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology|volume=85|issue=3|issn=0091-4169|oclc=803836960|url=https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6828&context=jclc|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180719110308/https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6828&context=jclc|archive-date=July 19, 2018}}</ref> In his book ''Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out'', gun rights advocate [[Don Kates]] found racial overtones in the focus on the Saturday night special.<ref name="Restricting Handguns">{{cite book |title=Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out |editor-first=Don B. |editor-last=Kates Jr. |publisher=North River Press |location=US |year=1979 |edition=1st |pages=[https://archive.org/details/restrictinghandg00kate/page/7 7–30] |chapter=1 |isbn=0-88427-034-3 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/restrictinghandg00kate/page/7}}</ref>

==Issues==
===Criminal use statistics===
{{Main|Gun violence in the United States}}
While Saturday night specials are commonly perceived as inexpensive, and therefore disposable after committing a crime, criminal behavior does not always conform to this expectation. A 1985 study of 1,800 incarcerated felons showed that criminals at the time preferred revolvers and other non-semi-automatic firearms over semi-automatic firearms.<ref>{{cite book |title=Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and their Firearms |url=https://archive.org/details/armedconsideredd0000wrig |url-access=registration |publisher=Aldine De Gruyter |first1=James D. |last1=Wright |first2=Peter H. |last2=Rossi  |name-list-style=amp |year=1986}}</ref> 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.<ref name="cohen-2002">{{cite conference |title=Guns and Youth Violence: An Examination of Crime Guns in One City |book-title=Final report |author=Cohen, Jacqueline, Wilpen Gorr, Piyusha Singh |publisher=[[National Institute of Justice]], [[Carnegie Mellon University]] |url=http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/wpapers/retrievePDF?id=2002-46 |date=December 2002 |access-date=November 17, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070325000721/http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/wpapers/retrievePDF?id=2002-46 |archive-date=March 25, 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Nonetheless, three of the top ten types of guns involved in crime (as represented by police trace requests<ref name=DOJstats>Guns Used in Crime: Firearms, Crime, and Criminal Justice—Selected Findings July 1995, NCJ-148201, [http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/guic.htm abstract], [http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/guic.pdf article] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060502140824/http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/guic.pdf |date=May 2, 2006}}</ref>) in the US are widely considered to be Saturday night specials; as reported by the ATF in 1993, these included the Raven Arms .25 ACP, Davis P-380 .380 ACP, and Lorcin L-380 .380 ACP.<ref>{{cite book |title=Guns, Crime, and Freedom |url=https://archive.org/details/gunscrimefreedom00lapi_0 |url-access=registration |publisher=Regnery Publishing |location=Washington, DC |last=LaPierre |first=Wayne |pages=[https://archive.org/details/gunscrimefreedom00lapi_0/page/58 58] |year=1994|isbn=9780895264770 }}</ref> 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.<ref name=DOJstats />

===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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-17-fi-56767-story.html|title=NAACP Files Lawsuit Against Handgun Makers |publisher=[[Los Angeles Times]]|author=Myron Levin|date= July 17, 1999|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519181529/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-17-fi-56767-story.html|archive-date=May 19, 2023}} </ref><ref>{{cite journal | date = September–October 1999 | title = NAACP causes furor by suing gun manufacturers | journal = [[The Crisis|The New Crisis]] | volume = 106 | number = 5 | publisher = The Crisis Publishing Company}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20030721-113731-5952r.htm | work = [[The Washington Times]] | title = Judge dismisses suit against gun makers | date = July 21, 2003 | access-date = November 20, 2017|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220315180525/https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/jul/21/20030721-113731-5952r/|archive-date=March 15, 2022}}</ref>

Proponents of gun ownership argue the elimination of inexpensive firearms limits constitutionally protected gun rights for those of lesser means. [[Roy Innis]], former President of [[Congress of Racial Equality]] (CORE) and a member of the [[National Rifle Association]]'s governing board,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16324652&ft=1&f=5 |title='Ricochet' Goes Behind Scenes of Gun Lobby |date=November 15, 2007 |publisher=[[NPR]] |access-date=November 15, 2007|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404024425/https://www.npr.org/2007/11/15/16324652/ricochet-goes-behind-scenes-of-gun-lobby?ft=1&f=5|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.nrawinningteam.com/bios99/innis.html | title = Roy Innis | work = The Winning Team (NRAWinningTeam.com) | url-status = dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013003459/http://www.nrawinningteam.com/bios99/innis.html | archive-date=October 13, 2007 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="CATO-Kopel">{{cite conference|title=Trust the People: The Case Against Gun Control |book-title=Cato Policy Analysis No. 109 |last=Kopel | first = David B. |publisher= CATO Institute |url=http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa109.html|year=1988|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060323070232/https://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa109.html|archive-date=March 23, 2006}}</ref>

[[Peter Rossi]] and [[James D. Wright]] authored a study for the [[National Institute of Justice]] which suggested the ban on Saturday night specials was ineffective or counterproductive.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Photocopy/97099NCJRS.pdf|title = Armed Criminal in America - A Survey of Incarcerated Felons &#124; Office of Justice Programs|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828070556/https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Photocopy/97099NCJRS.pdf|archive-date=August 28, 2022}}</ref> A [[Cato Institute]] [[Policy analysis]] by [[Dave Kopel]] went further:
<blockquote>
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 are more likely to use stolen weapons, 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.<ref name="CATO-Kopel" />
</blockquote>

==Regulation==
===United States===
[[File:Coltnewmodles.jpg|thumb|[[Colt M1861 Navy]] (foreground) and [[Colt Army Model 1860]] (background). 19th-century laws restricting handguns to the Army and Navy pistol were the first "Saturday night special" bans.]]
[[File:Rohm66.jpg|thumb|[[Röhm Gesellschaft|Röhm]] RG-66, an example of an inexpensive "Saturday night special" banned from import by the [[Gun Control Act of 1968]]]]
[[File:Wikijenningsj22-1.jpg|thumb|A cast [[zamak|zinc alloy]] [[Jennings J-22]] pistol with .22LR cartridges]]

The earliest law prohibiting inexpensive handguns was enacted in [[Tennessee]], in the form of the "Army and Navy Law", passed in 1879, shortly after the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th amendment]] and [[Civil Rights Act of 1875]]; 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.<ref>[http://www.saf.org/LawReviews/Tahmassebi1.html SAF Law Review] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000816062011/http://www.saf.org/LawReviews/Tahmassebi1.html |date=August 16, 2000 }}</ref> These were large pistols in .36 caliber ("navy") or .44 caliber ("army"), and were the military issue [[Percussion cap|cap and ball]] black-powder revolvers used during the Civil War by both Union and Confederate ground troops. The effect of the law was to restrict handgun possession to the upper economic classes.<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Don B. |editor-last=Kates, Jr. |title=Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out |publisher=North River Press |date=1979 |isbn=0-88427-033-5}} See Section I: Toward a History of Handgun Prohibition in the United States, pages 12–15, subsection "Development of Handgun Ownership Restrictions in the Post-Civil War South".</ref>

The next major 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 [[Röhm Gesellschaft|Röhm]], located in Germany.

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.<ref>{{cite book |first=Don B. Jr.|last=Kates |title=Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out |publisher=North River Press |year=1979 |isbn=0-88427-033-5 |chapter=Section I: Toward a History of Handgun Prohibition in the United States}}</ref> However, 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 components made of the zinc alloy [[zamak]] rather than the more typical machined or cast [[steel]]. As a result, legislation against "junk guns" subsequently targeted the zinc frames used in construction by specifying a melting point. The development of [[polymer]]-framed guns, which will burn at temperatures much lower than the commonly specified {{convert|800|F|C}} led to this becoming ineffective. Subsequent legislation regulated size (such as barrel lengths under {{convert|3|in|cm}}), materials (such as zinc), or low-cost manufacturing techniques (e.g., density requirements that specifically ban inexpensive powder cast metals),<ref>{{Cite web |title=PBS Frontline: Hot Guns: State Legislation |website=[[PBS]]|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/maps/state.html}}</ref> Some of these legal restrictions are based on [[product liability]] law.

===Canada===
In Canada, the [[Firearms Act, 1995|1995 Firearms Act]] (known as Bill C-68 before passage) classified handguns with a calibre of .25 or .32 (such as [[.25 ACP]] and [[.32 ACP]]), or having a barrel length of {{convert|105|mm|in|abbr=on}} or shorter, as "prohibited" weapons. This provision appears to have been specifically aimed at "Saturday night specials".<ref>[http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/page-45.html#docCont Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46, s 84, "prohibited firearm".]</ref> Exceptions are made for target pistols in these calibres used in international shooting competitions.<ref>[http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/fs-fd/rp-eng.htm RCMP List of Restricted and Prohibited Firearm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100211000641/http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/fs-fd/rp-eng.htm |date=February 11, 2010 }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saturday night special}}
[[Category:Gun politics in the United States]]
[[Category:Handguns]]