It wasn’t anti-gun. It was specifically about the $20 throwaway “Saturday Night Special”.
So poor people can’t own guns? A lot of people make grand statements and forget about the secondary and tertiary effects. OBTW I was of age when this whole “cheap gun” issue raised its head. One of the reasons that no laws were passed to remove “cheap handguns” is because the way they categorized cheap guns was to outlaw a lot of very good guns, e.g. Smith and Wesson five shot guns, Colt Peacemakers, and many antique guns. And allowed the continuation of a lot of poorly made (and inexpensive guns).
Which shows it is almost impossible to legislate the removal of a classification of guns, e.g. AR15s.
Following on the heels of the successful banning of switchblade knives, the "Saturday Night Special" was the Left's next target.
These small affordable handguns were the type used in movies and television of that era, talked about by the media, sung about in the songs in order to make them acceptable to the public for banning... just like happened with the switchblades.
In the 1980s, the Left turned it's attention to a new type firearm why is why all the crime shows in the 1980s used full auto Uzi/MAC-10 type weapons which were successfully restricted in 1986.
It’s got a barrel that’s blue and cold.
I work in a gun shop and every now and then someone brings in a Rohm or Lorcin or Jennings or some other POS and asks if we want to buy it. We break the bad news to them that it’s more useful as a rock than a gun and warn against shooting it.
In the 1960s you could get a legal Saturday Night Special for $12. In the 1900s a San Francisco news paper gave them away to people who subscribed to their newspaper.
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/free-pistol-san-francisco-newspaper-subscription-1887/
In the 1960s the main target was 5 shot army surplus rifles. Here is how it was...
Here are the democrat promises beginning in 1962...
Starting in 1962 with the demand of Dems Thomas J. Dodd and Emanuel Cellar...
1962 We ONLY want to register handguns. Rifles will not be affected!
1964, We ONLY want to register ALL firearms, not ban them.
1968 We ONLY want to register all guns, and ban the import of foreign Saturday Night Specials, and 5-shot bolt action army surplus rifles! (they got the ban).
1970, We ONLY want to ban small American handguns. Rifles will not be affected!
In 1976, the founder of handgun Control Inc told in a New Yorker interview his goal was to make ownership of all handguns “TOTALLY ILLEGAL”.
1976 We ONLY want to ban ALL handguns! Rifles will not be affected!
1981, Actress Lee Grant on Good Morning America screams and pokes holes in the air with her finger...”THE NRA IS A RIFLE ORGANIZATION! THEY SHOULD GIVE UP THEIR HANDGUNS AND THEY CAN KEEP THEIR RIFLES!”
1984, They came for the rifles.
1994, they got an “A-s-s-ault Rifle ban hoping it would be forever. Instead of turning off the lights and going home they immediately found another target to attack, 50 Cal Rifles “That can bring down an AIRCRAFT!”
Back in 1970, the Denver Post had an anti-gun article about those “E-e-vil” Saturday Night Specials. They declared any handgun that sold for $45 or less was an SNS and needed to be banned. The pistol shown was a Ruger Mk II.
You could buy a brand new in the box Winchester 1894 for that price.
Gun owners know they are always up against a stacked deck.
Who cares?
That was and is a racist term. The ruling class wanted folks to think that such guns were only good for "Niggertown Saturday Night".