Hi thanks for all of the replies and the prompt nature to which everyone has responded. You are all pretty much correct in your assumption that our apprehension to show weaponry on a one to one basis has been pretty much two fold; 

-one out of concern for the safety of staff but I see now that this might have been a little over prudent and the advice on checking the background of who is making the research enquiry and on firearms safety is great, plus I am due to see some firearms specialists on this in March. 

-Another was concern over the value of some probably not all of our weaponry as some of the pieces we have are probably some of the more valuable parts of our collection. We had a chap just recently who was viewing our permanent display of Tsuba sword mounts and wanted to know and possibly view any Japanese swords we may have in the collection but when asked for his details he refused to give them, so we in turn did not facilitate his request. 

We of course would follow conservation principles when showing or letting any member of the public handle any item, however I think weaponry or arms and armaments has been a bit of a gap in our knowledge and so we have either only put a selection of items on permanent display or kept the rest locked away. I am aware that my boss has some kind of fire arms licence but I will have to clarify with her whether this is hers specifically or whether we have a museum fire arms licence which I believe is different giving pretty much all museum staff the ability to handle firearms. 

Thank you to everyone who has responded and if anyone has any other advice it is appreciated.

Kind regards

Chris Young

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