There’s No Excuse for Ugly Guns

One of the dumbest pieces of conventional wisdom I’ve ever heard is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Spare me. Does anyone think that Angelina Jolie is a skank? Does anyone think that Rosie O’Donnell is a babe?

Ugly things are depressing not only because they are awful to look upon, but because most of them didn’t have to be ugly. Firearms are no exception. It’s no more trouble to make something with graceful and harmonious lines than it is to create an aesthetic abomination. That is, assuming that the designer has artistic talent and not just mechanical ability.

Through the history of firearms, many of the most effective guns have also been the most graceful—the Kentucky rifle, the Springfield Model 03, the Colt Peacemaker, the Winchester Model 12, the Savage Model 99. Gun designers who put ugly firearms on the market should be sealed in a room where the collected speeches of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are played at a deafening volume for all eternity.