From what my dad told me, back in the 70's there were alot of companies that used the blueprints for Smith and Wesson .38 snub nose revolvers, and outsourced the manufacturing to Chinese Firms, back when people were first figuring out how to make knock offs. They were cheap and plentiful as a result. Alot of gun shops would run specials on these (you could buy one for what would be $15 USD, back then would be closer to $25 today) that's where the terms "Saturday night special" or ".38 special" come from.

Back in the 70's sexism was way too normalized. In a fortune 500 company, it would be totally acceptable to whole handedly grab a female coworkers ass, so it makes sense that there would be an over abundance of drunk fuckers trying to force themselves on girls in an alley. I'm glad there was some cheep option for inexperienced gun owners to shoot the dicks off of attackers at the time, especially in big cities. I heard Chicago was the worst for rape/robbery in the early 70's, and New York was Hell in the early 80's (the film "The Warriors" was loosely based on current conditions at the time.)

I'm just glad I don't have to raise my kids in that shit.