Is this pistol a "Saturday Night Special"?

Question

I've had this .22 pistol for plinking for several years now...

http://www.thegunsource.com/store/item/7671_Hand_Guns_Pistols_Phoenix_Arms_Phoenix_Arms_Deluxe_Range.aspx

While certainly some have been linked to crimes, I own mine legally and use it lawfully. My state doesn't require I register it, but if it did, I have no problem with that.

Answer 1

Most would call the gun a SNS, especially with the 3" barrel. I'd look at a Smith & Wesson 22A.5.5" or even 7" barrel. Probably get about $30-50 trade in for that piece of junk.

Nobody would call the S&W 22A a SNS.

http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/s...

Nor a more expensive Ruger Mk III

http://www.ruger-firearms.com/Firearms/F...

As an added bonus, you'll be able to hit what you are shooting at!

Answer 2

Cheaply made, easily purchased and low price. are kinda what the term means nowadays. However, I know some people that think any handgun falls into this class because they don't like firearms.

Even earlier than the 1950's, the term suicide special was coined for those same cheap easily obtained guns. Mostly because you could get one for 10 bucks or so and who would want to spend a lot of money for "one shot" so to speak.

When they were called suicide specials, many were break top .32 or .38 shorts, made by assorted companies that sold new for around 10-15 bucks.

It is a derogative term basically meaning cheap,unreliable, but easily obtained handgun. Doesn't mean yours is. I am in favor of owning what a person can afford. Later, if you like firearms, you will probably get a top of the line model. Enjoy your gun anyway.

Answer 3

Yep, as an inexpensive 22, it's the very definition of the term. The label caught on among the gun-ban crowd as another of their scare tactics decades ago, and of course the logical upshot was that the criminal element, discouraged from getting inexpensive 22's, switched to more expensive (for the general public, not always for the criminal) larger caliber handguns. What an improvement!

One of those little items the gun banners fail to recognize is that it is impossible to ban guns, and all their silly tactics are absolutely bound to have the opposite effect from that intended.

Answer 4

If your firearm has the factory serial number and has not been "modified" in any way i would not consider it a SNS.

Answer 5

I have always thought that a saturday night special was jargon for a .38 revolver.

Apparently that's just my perception of the term

Answer 6

be aware joe plinker that your gun as it is inexpensive would likely fall under many 'saturday night special' bans that people have tried to push though in the past, and you would be a criminal simply for owning it...if the Brady Bunch had it's way.

Of course, criminalizing the ownership of 'Saturday Night Specials' as well as 'Assault Weapons' is stage 1 of the Brady Plan, Stage 2 is to eliminate ALL handguns, Stage 3 is all firearms

also note, Saturday Night Special is a racist term.  The current media has cleaned it up a bit, but originally it was Saturday Night Ni@@ertown Special, and laws regarding them were designed to keep guns out of the hands of 'colored folk' who often couldn't afford anything, and who the rest of society assumed were a bunch of criminals anyway.

Using Saturday Night Special still harkens to that racist past way of thinking, don't do it.

Answer 7

"Phoenix Arms is one of the original producers of the 'Saturday Night Special' in the United States."

Yep, says so right under the picture.  

Answer 8

Most "gun people" refer to Phoenix, Raven Arms, and Jennings pistols as Saturday Night Specials, or SNS.  The SNS is a term created by politicians who wanted to write laws banning these guns.  It is a very racist term because a lot of the people buying these handguns when they first came out were working-class black people.  In a way, the politicians simply wanted to disarm black people.

The term was propagated by the Brady Campaign when James Brady was nearly killed during the assassination attempt on President Reagan.  The pistol used in that instance was a SNS.  The Brady Bunch then began campaigning to outlaw these handguns.  They failed, as they did with many other gun laws.

A true SNS is a handgun that costs less than a hundred dollars new, or close to fifty dollars used.  They typically don't last very long, since substandard parts are used to keep the cost down.  Their main purpose is emergency self-defense.

Answer 9

Saturday Night Special is a racist term from the prohibition era, and was used for propaganda purposes.  What it means is any handgun which the Control Freaks want to ban at the time, from a .25 Raven to a Colt Python or even a Kimber.

Robert Sherrill, a major supporter of gun control in the 1960's, wrote the book "The Saturday Night Special" in which he stated that the object of the Gun Control Act of 1968 was black control rather than gun control. According to Sherrill, the 1968 Gun Control Act was passed in response to the ghetto riots of 1967 and 1968 and that the goal was to  "shut off weapons access to blacks, and since they (Congress) probably associated cheap guns with ghetto blacks and thought cheapness was peculiarly the characteristic of imported military surplus and the mail-order traffic, they decided to cut off these sources while leaving over-the-counter purchases open to the affluent."

Answer 10

I think it falls in that classification.

Just my opinion.

Answer 11

sat night specials came into the lexicon in the fifty's a derogatory expletive for pistols that sold for much less that fifty dollars. cheaply made and cheaply sold. i don't know what the dollar value is now for them but the gun haters use that term for anything that you can hold in your hand.for them soldered arms are called semi-automatic, even if they hold only one round on the weapon. tmm  

Answer 12

The Term "Saturday Night Special" is a law enforcement term. It refers to any handgun or pistol which is small enough to conceal in one's hand and usually cheap and inexpensive,thus affordable. Allowing the would be criminal to use (and toss if neccasary) and easily replace.