My name is Chris Young and I am a collections access assistant at a local museum, I am contacting to see whether anyone can help with a quick query. In short we have a varied mix of weapons; from swords to firearms in our collection all of which we keep secured, lately we have had some enquiries to whether someone could view this type of object (one example is a professional fencer who wished to view several of our rapiers). On each occasion we have had to decline; either because we thought it unsuitable or we felt we were unable to do this securely for the member of staff who would monitor the viewing. So I have been tasked by my manager to see whether there is a safe procedure to which we might be able to give a member of public the ability to access and view a weapon that is not on display, such as sword, or whether this is not suitable unless it is on display within a secure display case?

If anyone could help with this query I would greatly appreciate it.

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