1976 Gerald Ford - Saturday-Night-Special

In 1975, Lynrd Skynrd released their top 30 hit, Saturday-Night-Special. The song has often been hailed as an anti-gun anthem, but the author Ronne Van Zant was not on an anti-gun campaign to confiscate all guns and throw them to the bottom of the sea.  No, he was calling for better gun control of cheap hand guns that were good for nothing else than killing a man.  Ronne Van Zante owned a .22 caliber pistol himself, but in high crime areas cheap hand guns or Saturday-Night-Specials were sold on black market for as little as $20.  The Song Saturday-Night-Special was written in the summer of 1974 and reflected Ronnie's recollection of the guns that were easy to find in the rough part of Jacksonville where the band came from.  Ronnie Van Zant was not an anti-gun advocate, but he understood the danger of these guns that "Ain't good for nothin', But put a man six feet in a hole".  

Mister Saturday-Night-Special

You got a barrel that's a-blue and cold

So ain't good for nothin'

But put a man six a-feet in a hole 

Hand guns are made for killin'

Ain't no good for nothin' else

And if you like to drink your whiskey

You might even shoot yourself 

So why don't we dump 'em people

To the bottom of the sea

Before some old fool come around here

And wanna shoot either you or me 

Lynrd Skynrd

In 1976, President Gerald Ford agreed, and pleaded with Congress to get these guns out of the hands of criminals.   Cheap guns were being blamed for almost half of the gun related crimes in urban areas.  This was despite earlier efforts by LBJ to stop cheap imported '$10 specials' from getting into American cities.  The Gun Control Act (CGA) of 1968 signed by Lyndon B. Johnson banned the sale of cheap imported guns and prohibited interstate mail order sales of guns or ammunition, but by 1975, a thriving domestic industry of cheap guns had appeared to replace the cheap imports.  These new guns came known as Saturday-night-specials.  They were small caliber guns that were sold for less than $50 and had a barrel length of less than 3 inches.  Their small size made them easily concealable, and the cheap prices made them easy to obtain in high crime areas. 

In 1974, more than 400,000 or 22 percent of all handguns manufactured in the United States fell into the category of Saturday night special.  According to the New York Times, these guns were responsible for 47% of the gun related crimes in 16 urban areas in 1973.  Overall, Americans paid $91 million for handguns in 1974, and there were nearly 1.9 million handguns assembled in the United States each year.   Some gun control advocates were calling for very strict gun control, and there were already almost 40 gun control bills already sitting in House subcommittees, but President Ford chose a more limited approach.  While some in Congress wanted to ban all pistols of any type, price and caliber, President Ford wanted laws that would cut down on the criminal use of guns without taking guns away from law abiding citizens.

President Ford proposed four policies to reduce criminal gun use.

1. Impose mandatory sentences for crimes where a gun is used.
2. Make it harder to obtain cheap guns for criminal purposes.
3. Concentrate gun control enforcement in high crime areas. 

Here is an excerpt from President Gerald Ford's 1976 State of the Union Address.

"Another major threat to every American's person and property is the criminal carrying a handgun. The way to cut down on the criminal use of guns is not to take guns away from the law-abiding citizen, but to impose mandatory sentences for crimes in which a gun is used, make it harder to obtain cheap guns for criminal purposes, and concentrate gun control enforcement in highcrime areas.

My budget recommends 500 additional Federal agents in the 11 largest metropolitan high-crime areas to help local authorities stop criminals from selling and using handguns."

Despite Ford's pleas for gun control legislation, nothing was passed by Congress in 1975 or 1976.

References

Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress Reporting on the State of the Union. | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-before-joint-session-the-congress-reporting-the-state-the-union [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

Elliott, P. and Rock, C. (2019). The Story Behind The Song: Saturday Night Special by Lynyrd Skynyrd. [online] Classic Rock Magazine. Available at: https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-story-behind-the-song-saturday-night-special-by-lynyrd-skynyrd [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

King, W. (2019). Efforts to Curb Cheap Pistols Called Failure. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/20/archives/efforts-to-curb-cheap-pistols-called-failure.html [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

Wagner, D. (2019). 1968 Lyndon B. Johnson - Gun Control Act of 1968. [online] Stateoftheunionhistory.com. Available at: http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2018/04/1968-lyndon-b-johnson-gun-control-act.html [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].