I looked after some Armourers in Southern Iraq in the British Army. Things were being brought in all the time for putting beyond use (cut up/crushed etc). Once the younger crew were able to describe action of mech'/strip and assemble etc we had them destroy the stuff. From an engineering and weapons perspective it was awful to do but we learned the hard way that sending anything back out to police etc would end up in a bazaar and possibly used against coalition forces again. Sterlings were something I trained on but our younger guys hadn't seen them before less on Star Wars!