While I like my Glock 19 a lot, there’s one thing I kind of hate about polymer handguns. That’s the difficulty in personalizing a weapon.

Take a 1911 or even my old CZ-75B, and you could find a plethora of grips for the weapon that would make it fit your personality. It was a quick, easy fix that you could do at home and change the entire nature of your gun. While I didn’t do it with my CZ, it was usually because I couldn’t really pick just one (which is why the Hogues I bought right after getting the gun are still on the pistol).

However, a video recently surfaced that reminded me that customization isn’t always a pleasant thing.

Glock Store’s Lenny Macgill shows off this…thing, and suddenly I’m kind of glad my Glock isn’t that easy to modify.

Now, this is not to detract from Glock Store’s custom work. I’ve seen some pretty cool stuff from it in the past, and this one was made to a customer’s specs, so it’s clearly to someone’s taste. It’s just not mine by any stretch of the imagination.

But, I guess it’s the differences that make life worth living, right?

Personally, I’m not a fan of that pistol. I am, however, a fan of the right to have that pistol. I think it’s hideous, but I’m also not the person who will see it in my gun safe.

The fact is, we live in a free nation where we don’t have to like one another’s tastes–I can only imagine what some would think of my tastes–but simply have to respect that there are differences. Perhaps more importantly, however, is that you have a right to own a pistol just like that and I don’t have a say in the matter, because I shouldn’t.

If you’re not a felon, there should be no bar on you buying a gun as pretty, as ugly, or as utilitarian as you want. Buy, own, shoot, and be proud that we are one of the few countries where you don’t have to beg permission from your government overlords to purchase a firearm.

Then remember that even some of our fellow Americans live in a place where they have to essentially do just that. They must obtain a license–permission–from the government before buying something that the Constitution says they have a right to have.

In other words, if you think that’s the ugliest gun you’ve ever seen, as I do, it’s still a beautiful thing. It’s proof that we’re still a free people and that we need to work to help free our brothers and sisters living in states that don’t recognize our Second Amendment rights are absolute. Right now, we’re all feeling under assault by anti-gun forces, but let’s think about what it is for our brothers and sisters who have to beg permission from bureaucrats to own the means to defend themselves, their family and even this country.

Hold the ground, then start taking ground back!