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"