WhaaaaT!!?? Whose idea is this?

[Josey]

I was discussing some inexpensive firearms recently. A friend informed me that South Carolna, Wisconsin and Illinois have -FRAME MELT POINT LAWS- ? What is this?? Does it apply to polymer or alloy? Is it aimed at EAA 22s or Ruger 44s? I know this is an actual law in some areas. I just don't understand it. Anybody know more?

 

[Triad]

IIRC, that is another law aimed at the 'Saturday Night Special'. Most of those guns have alloy frames that will melt before steel will, so this allows them to outlaw the cheaper guns. Consumer safety doncha know.

 

[BryanP]

The classic example being the RG .22 revolver which allegedly was made of such cheap alloy you could melt it in a saucepan on your stovetop.

No, I've never tried.

 

[Majic]

The "Saturday Night Special" laws came out long before the polymer pistols. South Carolina enacted theirs after they became NYC's scapegoat for the increasing gun crime. By their amazing deduction NYC determined the guns in their city were coming from SC and they were all the so called "Saturday Night Specials".
When that had no effect on NYC's crime they then turned their attention to Virginia and we got saddled with the "one-gun-a-month" law. Funny how after 2 states abided by NYC's wishes they still had the same problem.

BTW... the temperature was low enough to only affect those guns made of the porous alloy common to the cheaper brands such as Bryco, Lorcin, Jennings, etc.

 

[Red_SC]

You know, I was wondering why I've never seen one of the infamous Lorcins. Now I know.

 

[dev_null]

> You know, I was wondering why I've never seen one of the infamous Lorcins. Now I know.

They got left out in the sun?

- 0 -

 

[Majic]

I knew a guy from SC who had come here to Va and got married to a girl I know. He had a Bryco .380 that needed a recoil spring. He said he had tried several times over a few year period to get it fixed, but the shop owners said they couldn't even have one so they didn't want to take it in for repair. Since he nothing about repairing or geting parts I ordered him a spring and replaced it for him. The law had essentially saddled him with a paperweight he couldn't locally had repaired.

 

[scbair]

Yep,

SC's then-governor, Richard Riley, ramrodded both the "melting point" and "1-handgun-per-30-days" restrictions through the state legislature. For his absolute loyalty to Democratic Party ideals, he later became President Clinton's Secretary of Education (go figure ).

Happily, our GOP-controlled legislature and GOP Governor Mark Sanford recently repealed the "1-handgun-per 30-days" limit.

As I recall, when Glocks first appeared on the scene, they were considered "banned" due to the melting point requirement. However, after the powers-that-be in one of our state law enforcement agencies decided the Glock was the sidearm they wanted our LEOs to carry, this was "re-defined" so as to permit the Glocks to be purchased by us peasants (couldn't have us accusing the law enforcement administrators of arming "our boys" with Saturday Night Specials", eh?

Happily, this "re-definition" has also allowed KelTecs to be marketed in SC.

The above is based strictly on my memory of some articles and interviews of the period; may be faulty, but . . .

 

[45King]

Interesting side note--SLED was the very first LEA anywhere to adopt the then-new .40 S&W cartridge.
The Glock 22 became their standard sidearm. The law was amended to exempt polymer-frame guns because we couldn't have our "boys in blue" (green?) carrying "Saturday Night Specials" now, could we?

 

[Don Gwinn]

The law in Illlinois excludes plastic, but yes, there's a melting-point that's not allowed. As has been pointed out, it came from people wanting to ban "Saturday Night Specials" and not knowing how to define the things.

I believe it's widely unenforced, because Lorcins, Brycos, Ravens, etc are all widely available from people I assume are FFL's at gun shows. I don't see them in gun stores (I think.)

I first found out about it because an amendment was proposed two years ago when I was working as a reporter in legislative committees. It doesn't affect private ownership or sale, only FFL dealers. I keep saying I want to find out when it passed, because when dad had a gun shop in the mid-90's he couldn't keep those junky little Lorcins and Brycos on the shelf. It was uncanny. You could stand there and say "Look, I'll sell you one, but I don't want you to think you're getting a quality gun if I do. These things aren't much good." Didn't matter; everybody wanted one. Same people buying the $300 E-Machine computers and the $5 Chinese knock-off pocket knives, I guess.
Anway, I've always wondered if dad was a multiple felon for years without knowing it!

 

[Treylis]

Anway, I've always wondered if dad was a multiple felon for years without knowing it!

Generally, situations in which you can be a felon yet not know that you are involve really bad laws. This is no exception. ;-)