The Racist Origins of the Term “Saturday Night Special”
The NRA has an excellent article on the racist origins of the term “Saturday Night Special“. In short, this term was used to describe guns the racist law makers saw as being used by African Americans to commit crimes on Saturday nights, after drinking.
An excerpt from the above article which illustrates the history of Saturday Night Specials:
“To prevent Blacks from arming themselves, southern states enacted the Black Codes, which “fixed the black population in serfdom, denying all political rights, excluding them from virtually any chance at economic or social advancement — and, of course, forbidding them to own arms.” (Don B. Kates, Jr., “Toward a History of Handgun Prohibition in the United States,” Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out, Don B. Kates, Jr., Ed., North River Press, Inc, 1979.)
After ratification of the 14th Amendment (1868) and enactment of the Civil Rights Act (1875), several states responded by passing laws which on their face were race-neutral, but which in effect were not. Attorney Robert Dowlut observed, “It does not matter that a law on its face applies to all. A law will be deemed unconstitutional if the ‘the reality is that the law’s impact falls on the minority.’” (“Bearing Arms in State Bills of Rights, Judicial Interpretation, and Public Housing,” St. Thomas Law Review, Vol. 5, Fall 1992.)
Among these laws, the forerunners of so-called “Saturday Night Special” legislation, was Tennessee’s “Army and Navy” law (1879), which prohibited the sale of any “belt or pocket pistols, or revolvers, or any other kind of pistols, except army or navy pistol” models, among the most expensive, and largest, handguns of the day. (Such as the Colt Model 1960 Army, Model 1851 Navy, and Model 1861 Navy percussion cap revolvers, or Model 1873 Single-Action Army revolver.) The law thus prohibited small two-shot derringers and low-caliber rimfire revolvers, the handguns that most Blacks could afford.”