Regulations aside, experience has shown that no matter how professional or experienced the bodyguards or security agents purport to be, the more they handle their weapon, the higher the risk of an accidental discharge.
We used to make the PM's friendly goons walk over to an especially prepared area of the tarmac where the air force, who was running that part of the field, had placed a big bucket of sand surrounded by two walls made of soft, thick wood. There they would remove the ammo from their handguns, and then hand said ammo to us upon boarding. They always kept the gun, nobody ever saw the point of confiscating an unloaded weapon and keep it in the cockpit where it would take away space I needed and potentially scratch the nice wood veneer...
Now the Lieutenant-Colonel in charge of the VIP Tarmac always had a big frown on his face during this procedure, and tried to keep the VIPs inside and as far away as possible during this procedure. As he was an otherwise friendly guy and sharp cookie, we decided to buy him a beer after hours and bring the subject up. He proceeded to enlighten us about the half-dozen times handguns had gone "bang" in the "safe" area just as the VIPs were boarding. Also, swore that half the "unloaded" guns carried aboard probably still had one in the chamber, whether on purpose or not. Our suggestion that we as flight crew could check the proper unloading of the weaponry was met with great mirth....
It only took another beer to decide that from now on we were not going to bother any bodyguards about their guns any more, and that the safest place for their guns and ammo to be was in their holsters, untouched.
On other hand, we went to the trouble of printing a leaflet in 3 languages for the benefit of security personnel, reminding them of the trouble they could get in if they had not reported their firearms to the destination country, and gotten the proper permission.
Never had trouble since.....