Saturday night special

The phrase Saturday night special is pejorative slang used in the United States and Canada for any inexpensive handgun. 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 availability make them attractive to low-income buyers despite their shortcomings.

Controversy

Laws prohibiting or regulating the purchase of inexpensive handguns such as Saturday Night Specials are controversial in the United States. 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

Some see the availability of handguns as a threat to the community. 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 Mfume 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, 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 helps to determine who is able to buy it, the elimination of inexpensive firearms has a direct effect upon those of lesser means. Roy Innis, president of the activist group Congress on Racial Equality, 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." (The Congress on Racial Equality filed as an amicus curiae in a 1985 suit challenging Maryland's Saturday night special/low-caliber handgun ban.) The Wright and Rossi 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."