Origin of The Term
In his book Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out, civil rights attorney and gun scholar Don Kates found racial overtones in the focus on the Saturday Night Special ("niggertown Saturday night special"). Even gun control advocate Robert Sherrill claimed: "The Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed not to control guns but to control blacks."
The earliest known use of the term "Saturday night special" in print is in the August 17, 1968 issue of the New York Times. In a front-page article titled Handgun Imports Held Up by U.S, author Fred Graham wrote, "... cheap, small-caliber 'Saturday night specials' that are a favorite of holdup men..."
Among some law enforcement officers, the term has also applied to home made or improvised weapons, such as "zip guns." The idea behind the slang being that such a weapon made during the week would be used in a crime over the weekend; Saturday night being the peak night for such crimes.
M.A. (Merle Avery) Gill's Underworld Slang, a dictionary published in 1929, includes an entry called "Saturday night pistol" with this simple definition: ".25 automatic."
The Oxford English Dictionary notes that the descriptor "Saturday night" has been in use since 1847 to refer to activities taking place on, or as on, a Saturday night - especially in the form of revelry.
Read more about this topic: Saturday Night Special
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