With the kind approval of Eugene Wolberg, indisputably one of the most
respected firearms examiners in the world, I have been allowed to distribute
the following article.  It is the single best compendium of _technical_
issues relevant to current Goldilocks Gun Control ("some guns are 'too big' -
some guns are 'too small', no guns are 'just right'") efforts to ban
inexpensive pistols that I have seen to date.  Stay tuned for the discussion
of the _public policy_issues in Kleck's upcoming book, "Targeting Guns"  ---
and then watch the lying prohibitionist cockroaches scurry for the dark.
Edgar A. Suter MD
National Chair
Doctors for Intgrity in Policy Research Inc.

Opinion Page,  "INSIGHT"   "Sunday Edition"
Attention:  Robert J. Caldwell
	        Editor :  "Insight"


The Myth of the "Saturday Night Special"

by Eugene J. Wolberg


"Saturday Night Special"!  Wow, there's a term that everyone understands, or
do they?  As it's been said, "Nothing is so firmly believed that is so little
understood."  This definitely applies to the "Saturday Night Special" debate.
 My purpose here is not to convince you to support or not support a SNS law.
 That is your choice as a citizen.  My purpose is to give you the facts so
you can make an informed decision as to what you may ask your elected
representative to do in this issue before us.

	The first thing that must be made clear, from a firearms identification
technology point of view, is that the term "Saturday night special" does not
exist as a type of firearm.  The term is one of perception, one of belief,  a
media or political term.  From the point of view of trying to identify SNS as
a type of firearm or establish a physical description of the gun, this
identification attempt is pointless and simply cannot be done with any
precision.  In short, a "Saturday night special" is anything you want it to
be depending on your outlook about firearms.

	The reason for this is that the manufacturing technology and materials used
cross all boundaries in firearms manufacture.  Expensive and inexpensive
firearms share many factors in design, materials used and chambering.  In
short, there is nothing that characterizes the so called "Saturday night
special" from any other firearm manufactured and to state so belies a
tremendous misunderstanding of firearms manufacturing technology.  While we
normally think that SNS's are usually "cheap" firearms, according to the
definitions offered by the people writing these law virtually all handguns
can be included.  Not to include our most modern and somewhat expensive guns
would be intellectually dishonest on the part of anyone making a list of
firearms to be banned.

	I have studied the West Hollywood SNS ordinance and have found it fraught
with technical and identification errors.  The reason for this is that the
SNS document is a reverse engineered ordinance, that is the gun list was
identified first and the definitions were done later to cover the list of
guns.

	Unknown to the authors of the SNS law, the definitions actually define a
much larger list that was envisioned by the authors.  The guns included are
most of today's modern firearms that use plastics, nylon polymers, zinc and
aluminum for their construction materials.  In short, the SNS definitions are
a fraud, in effect the curve was drawn first and the data points plotted
later.  The reality is that the SNS ban goes after a group of identified
manufacturers rather than after a specific type of firearm, loosely and
perjoratively called SNS

	Often  BATF tracing "data" is offered to show that SNS's are used in 80% of
all guns used in crime.  This is in fact untrue.  The real numbers are
somewhere between 10 to 15 % depending on the year you are looking at and is
going down, mostly due to economic factors.  Also understand, this is ALL
CRIMES, not just violent crimes.  There is a problem with  ATF  tracing
"data."   The short explanation is that the tracing "data" collected is a non
random selection of firearms to be traced and represents only the
investigative needs of the persons requesting the trace.  All guns are not
traced.  The few guns that are traced  could be for various reasons that are
not connected to gun usage and therefore is not representative of any trend
of type of gun used and therefore meaningless.  Even BATF recognizes this.
 It seems that the gun prohibition people don't and continue to misrepresent
tracing data as fact.

	SAAMI, (Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufactures Institute)  is the
organization that defines the standards for firearm chamber and cartridge
design.  Most importantly,  they define the pressure of high pressure
reference ammunition, (proof loads)  that are used to check the structural
integrity of firearms.  These proof load are deliberate overloads in the
range of 30 to 60 percent overpressure from the standard cartridge operating
pressure.
 
	It should be noted that the Association of Firearm and Toolmark Examiners
(AFTE) has addressed this issue in 1987.   AFTE is an international
association of court qualified firearms experts with members in 24 countries.
 The association produces a Glossary of firearms terms that are accepted by
the membership.  These terms are used in court testimony and in firearms
investigations.  The AFTE Glossary does not describe a "SNS" because the gun
does not exist as a specific type of firearm.  The term is best described as
a political or media term, a term of perception.  Depending on the knowledge
of the observer, the model and manufacturer of the firearms in question is
somewhat variable.  The general terms used to describe "SNS's" are relative
terms, that in effect are meaningless in the context of firearms
identification.

	It is also interesting to note that rather that one clear and concise
definition to define the so called "Saturday Night Special"  the authors of
the  West Hollywood ordinance, which contains parts of the  ordinance that
was suggested by the San Diego County  Board of Supervisors,  had to use
three different ways to define a "SNS"
 

