Talk:Saturday night special

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Army and Navy gun stuff

This was a first attempt in 1870 to ban the equivalent of "junk guns" or SNS's that were affordable to recently freed slaves. It was a a definite gun control move against low-cost guns, analogous to SNS or junk guns today. As this article is about SNS and junk guns, it seems reasonable to include this content in this article. Yaf 01:29, 18 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Among serious collecters the terms "suicide special" and "saturday night special" are fairly analogous. The former is any low powered (usually .22, .32, .38, or .41 rimfire), cheaply made revolver ,easily concealed single action revolver, usually with a spur trigger. The tremendous glut of surplus percussion revolvers on the market after the civil war would have made "army and navy" revolvers CHEAPER than the new technology of cartridge weapons surely, especially while the Rolin White patent was in effect? Also look at all the state constitutions drafted at the time mentioning concealed weapons specifically. See also http://books.google.com.au/books?id=THeWYkwoLSUC&lpg=PA485&dq=%22suicide%20special%22&pg=PA485#v=onepage&q=%22suicide%20special%22&f=false Benvenuto (talk) 00:10, 10 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Proper title

I see an inconsistency with the term 'Saturday Night Special'. Sometimes all three words are capitalised, sometimes only the first. Do we want consistency?

WesT (talk) 02:42, 17 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

More recent data?

Can we get more recent data/sources than mid '80s? What's the point of using nearly 30 yr old data to 'disprove' that Saturday night specials are preferred or not in crime? Using that in a historical format of the condition when the term was being debated is fine, but the article reads as present tense, which obviously doesn't work. (Saying that revolvers are preferred by criminals and then saying tastes changed in the '90s--nearly 20 yrs ago!--is just sloppy.) Also, if the article is intended to be more historical, then documenting the rise & fall of the popularity of the term would be beneficial.

Also, much of the article is written with the assumption that Saturday night specials are by definition small caliber, but the definition given is simply cheap, low-quality guns. Sure, low caliber guns typically are cheaper, but there are plenty of cheap, low quality .45s out there, too. Either sources need to be added that require Saturday night specials to be low caliber or the refutation of the theory that they are used for crimes needs sources/evidence that do not reference/rely on caliber. 206.83.48.110 (talk) 12:57, 4 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The History of Saturday Night Specials ?

In the article it mentions that the term Saturday night special originated fairly recently in the 1960's. Many years ago I read a detailed history of firearms that covered the evolution of the whole field in detail, and I'm pretty sure the term 'Saturday night special' came from the 19th century, or earlier. I also seem to remember that it originated in the idea of the gun only lasting a single day - brought on Friday exploded on Saturday night. One of the most important things not mentioned in the article is that poorly or cheaply made or badly designed guns used to fail regularly, exploding when fired and quite frequently killing or injuring the people who fired them. This was a particular problem with early breach loaders, and especially before the development of modern gun steels.
This is a matter that should be easily solved by finding a new copy of the book or something similar. Unfortunately I don't remember the original exact title. Lucien86 (talk) 05:46, 26 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting note, @Lucien86:. This might be something the Wikipedia Reference Desk could help you track down. Obviously the more info you have, the better. Just a thought! Cyphoidbomb (talk) 06:07, 26 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm no expert in this area, but will try to hunt the book down. Looking on Amazon I think it might be The History of guns by DK publishing. This might also be the kind of thing that the Oxford English Dictionary research people might have the answer to? or Webster's.. Lucien86 (talk) 14:08, 26 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]