Weapon Switching

So I made a character and rigged him, I also made a weapon. I started to animate his walk cycle until I got to the hand (this was all done in Blender btw). This is my question, should I put the weapon in his hand while animating all the actions? Because I want to be able to switch between weapons in the game, but I don't think I can do that because the weapon will be part of the animation... right?? If I did it this way I would have to go inside the player's child's and delete the weapon then instantiate another one (please correct me if i'm wrong). I just don't think I have the right concept here how does everybody else do this?

Thanks!

no don't stick it in his hand otherwise you will have to make and animate a model for each gun! the best way is to have each weapon instaniate in level and then parent to your players hand (make sure player has the right animation on him for each weapon because you don't want him to be holding a pistol as though it's a rocket launcher)