There have been Saturday Night Specials around for almost as long as there have been handguns, but not by that name. For the last 50 or so years, a SNS is considered to be low in cost and made predominately from zinc alloy die castings, and by reputation, made mainly for sale to the criminal class.

I have owned two Jennings pistols. The first one I had was a .22 I bought on sale at some discount store back in the early 1980s. I don't remember the price, but I think about $50. I found it to be highly unreliable with any type or brand of .22 ammunition. It jammed more than it fired. I sold it shortly thereafter for about what I paid for it. The second Jennings was a .380 which I bought back in the early 2000s. I bought it from a neighbor who had never fired it. It came with two new full boxes of Winchester .380 ammunition. I gave him $75. As I stated earlier, it worked fine for firing the first box. After that, strange things started happening. After some looking, I found the problem. The firing pin hole had been peened down preventing the firing pin from protruding. There was a depression the diameter of the primer around the firing pin hole in breech face of the alloy slide. I drilled out the hole, but that turned out to be only a temporary solution, and I soon gave up on a fix. The slide alloy is just too soft to handle the .380 cartridge. I still have it somewhere as I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. It would have been a good personal protection gun if it had never been fired for practice. 50 rounds is a fairly short lifespan for any handgun. I think the Jennings was later sold under the Bryco and Jiminez brand names, no idea if they are still made.

I once had a neighbor who offered to give me his .25 Raven. I declined but wish I hadn't. I am sort of fond of .25 pistols. My normal carry gun is a Galesi .25 which is very reliable with CCI Blazer ammunition. I don't even know it's in my pants pocket.