Strange British Naval Sabre

[Ian]

I don't know why this museum initially chose to destroy rather than sell off their "foreign" arms collection. However, Australian regulators and politicians are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to restrict ownership of any form of weapon by its citizens. There is a belief that tight control of ownership of weapons will restrict violent acts.

Unfortunately, violence plays out anyway. The most recent efforts to limit ownership of weapons has been a poorly crafted law in the State if Victoria that prohibits ownership of "machetes" unless one has a permit for such a weapon. The legal definition of a machete is so broad that it encompasses any large knife made at any time.

[adrian]

I couldn't agree more. I recently imported two British c1840 percussion single shot pistols. To my dismay the import permits I had from the Victorian Police was useless due to a new importation of hanguns law since 'Bondi'. Now a Home Affairs Firearms Import Permit is required - the only snag is that they have no pathway for antique hanguns in place yet, so playing the waiting game there. In this case they have sidelined a perfectly functional system and replaced it with a dysfunctional system.

I don't know why this museum initially chose to destroy rather than sell off their "foreign" arms collection.

It was due to their storage space being reduced and some things had to go, however that they could have even considered such destruction beggars belief and thank goodness that did not occur. I gather that other museum/s were given a chance to select important items prior to the remainder being sold by auction and so some items remain in public collections, where they are unlikely to ever be on display anyway......