r/canadaguns • u/RandVanRed • Jun 17 '25

Liberals were here

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"Weapons of the Plains" exhibit at the RCMP Heritage Center has no guns. "Removed for conservation", right! 😜

225 Upvotes

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139

u/RandVanRed Jun 17 '25

I posted this as a joke, but as I explored the museum it became obvious that ALL firearms have been removed from display. Apparently they're not a part of the history of the RCMP.

88

u/Ov3rReadKn1ght0wl Jun 17 '25

Were they actually removed for conservation though? I've done some firearm conservation work in my time and some displays did get yoinked on a regular schedule.

7

u/Corporal_Canada Jun 18 '25

Yeah, this is a thing.

I visited the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds last year and talked with a few of the staff about this. There's a lot of work that goes into maintaining artifacts, and the Royal Armouries even has a separate collection of weapons designated for public handling for this reason. Even under museum glass air and light do affect the pieces over time.

10

u/soundssarcastic bc Jun 17 '25

Yoinked where? A museum sounds like a great place to leave them

38

u/Ov3rReadKn1ght0wl Jun 18 '25

Typically they are brought to museum storage which can be within the exhibit facility or sometimes off site where they (and any other ephemera) are inspected, treated, and/or restored as needed in a lab and then stored in specialized areas or returned to display. Just because something is in a glass case, doesn't make it immune from deterioration. Most of a museum's items are actually stored this way with only a fraction of the collection on display.

Did a bunch of work in these labs back in the day. Tons of fun!

6

u/No_History_7742 Jun 18 '25

How does one get into that kind of work? That sounds like an awesome job!

3

u/Ov3rReadKn1ght0wl Jun 18 '25

I got into it by picking an artifact conservation stream as part graduate work in history after working in museums for a couple of years. I originally worked with archival documents and coins but moved on to other artifacts with time.

9

u/Azuvector bc Jun 18 '25

Not the first police museum that claims "gun culture" of some form that's complete nonsense: Vancouver Police Museum for example:

https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/103905897175561458949/place/ChIJo3B9CHFxhlQRCmfgCcpG0BQ/@34.8647993,-124.2765234,4z/data=!4m4!1m3!8m2!1e1!2s103905897175561458949?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDYxNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

2

u/mwmwmwmwmmdw Jun 18 '25

i like the shitty plastic trigger locks on the lever actions that do nothing

4

u/JazzlikeSort Jun 18 '25

You mean the agency in charge of telling us what guns we can have took their guns from their exhibits?

0

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '25

Took ‘em out because the 5946s keep breaking and the lever actions on display were more reliable