SwampCollie

Saturday night specials are infact legal.. however illegal to manufacture or sell.

The term has been bastardized by modern culture, racists, rappers and retards... so I'll give you the real scoop here....

A Saturday Night Special is a gun that was made by couple of different companies... but the one that comes to mind is Harrington and Richardson (thats right... single shot H&R/NEF). They were revolvers, short/snub nose, in a variety of calibers. The thing that made them "special" was that they were made out of cheap pot-metal. The metal was of such poor quality infact, that you could actually melt the gun into a puddle with nothing more than a hot burning gas stove-top... just like melting lead. The danger of this, of course, from a law enforcement standpoint is it makes getting rid of the murder weapon a downright simple operation. They are not illegal to have, as I understand it, but the few that came into the gunshop were quickly sent off with the owner as an FFL is not allowed to be in possession of one. So the story goes anyway.... might be outright illegal... who knows. But thats what makes a Saturday night Special... "Special".

Briman

None of the above is even remotely true^^

There are several FFLs near me that have Ravens, Lorcins, Jennings, h&rs etc for sale- all are low quality guns. IIRC a fe,w of the listed companies were either sud out of existance or were shut down because of illegal dealing and/or theft by employees that sold them to criminals. Before these companies were around, there were several other companies dating back to before the turn of the century that made cheap pistols. The most modern rendition of what might be described as a saturday night special are High Point pistols- cheap construction and more importantly to politicians and other fear mongers- cheap price.

The whole idea of 'saturday night specials' was to keep guns out of the hands of former slaves and their decendents. Areas of the South were controlled by the KKKwho were in all levels of local and state governments and wanted nothing morethan to make sure the*****s were kept in their place, and disarming them was the easiest way to keep them living in fear. In modern days, cheap pistols are are seen as guns of criminals, but they are far from it. A $50 pistol might be kept by an old man in a bad part of town to defend himself from punks, but the punks always trade up for something better. If you look at statistics for guns that are used most frequently in crimes, No.1 has been Ruger MK1 or MK2 pistols for a long time, followed by Ruger centerfire semiauto pistols,followed by S&W .38 revolvers, followed by various remington or Mossberg shotguns. We as sporstmen can bury our heads in the sand and nod in agreement when politicians talk about cheap pistols, but the reality is that most of the 'crime guns' are made by reputable makers with household names. Guess who the politicians went after next and continue to go after?

SwampCollie

I'm sure that your historical look at it is right on Briman, and I and everyone else have no doubt enjoyed the history lesson... but believe me when I tell you that no FFL holder who wants to keep his license will have a pot-metal gun in his shop. What I referred to is what the feds and gun auditors define as a "saturday night special". Could well be that they were the one's bastardizing the otherwise racial slur???

Briman

Yeah I suppose the BATFE doesn't need much of a reason to shut down a gunshop- they salivate over the possibility.[:@]

BTW, the BATF just shut down a manufacturer jnown as Cavalry Arms because a few disgruntled ex-employees phoned in allegations of money laundering in terms of the company donating guns as dor prizes for a state rifle association. They came in and seized everything without any proof of wrongdoing other than hearsay.

jtb1967

Does the BATF website define these "Saturday night specials" or pot metal guns? I'd like to find the illegal part in writing.

Here's the NRA viewpoin on Saturday night specials and the law.

http://www.nraila.org/issues/factsheets/read.aspx?id=61

eldeguello

I recall seeing part (that's all I could stand) of an episode of HAWAII 5-O once in which that idiot Jack Lord and his inane crew were under attack by a malfactor who was armed with the deadly and dreaded Saturday Night Special. With this weapon,the creep took a couple of carloads of Honolulu's Finest under fire! (Brilliant move!!) He succeeded in pinning down the whole bunch of cops, and shot all kinds of big ol' holes in their vehicles from a distance which appeared to be at least 100 yards, almost as if he were armed with anM16, an M1A, or maybe even an M2Browning, and not a 5-shot .32 S&W Short.

It was one of the most blatantly anti-gun pieces of propaganda I ever saw on TV. If it hadnot been so nauseating, it would have been funny........

Pawildman

Don't you just love the "entertainment" industry and the crap they feed to the gullible public that sits and watches and swallows the whole deal as absolute truth?? These people are some of the most outrageous individuals ever to walk the Earth. What's worse, the poison they spew to the uneducated is the same poison that they spew to our children. I really and truly believe that along with our liberal court system and the ACLU that the "entertainment" industry and the news media's propensity to glorify those who work in it are largely responsible for the attitude of many of our youth today. Way too much murder and extreme violence being portrayed anymore.

SwampCollie

This is probably the best, most objective opinion/write up on the subject at hand I have seen. So far, it kinda looks like everyone has added another piece.... and if you took the sum of all our posts on here thus far, we'd probably get something like this....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_night_special

The pot-metal guns I refered to are apparently zinc based... they are referred to in the article. Maybe my bosses at the gun shop were just paranoid... who knows... it happens...

Buckhunter46755

lol... I learned something yet again.

Like the song by Lynyrd Skynyrd....

"Mister Saturday night special
Got a barrel that's blue and cold
Ain't good for nothin
But put a man six feet in a hole"

lmfao here... man I must really..... be crazy.

jtb1967

I'd say just uninformed. I've delt with a truckload of FFL holders over the years that had no idea about BATF laws. One clueless gunshop owner tells an incorrect story and his loyal customers spread the gospel because "Ol' Joe knows that gun stuff". Having the FFL doesn't mean you know or understand the gun laws.