The trouble is that the TSA is very weapon oriented (despite the truism that most anything can be used as a weapon), and want passengers to be as helpless as possible in a confrontation with a terrorist, insane person, or drunk/drugged up person.
Plus, there are some strong social stigmas. For example, I knew an individual who had a positive gift for popping out eyeballs. He said that absolutely nothing stops a fight faster, and most of the time, the eyeballs can just be popped back in and still work. Unfortunately, he admitted that seeing it happen is too much for many people, who then overreact.
Finally, as a technical point, it is often better to *not* use a weapon, in that it tends make the user too focused on it, when they could do better without. I’ve seen this before, with skilled karate people reduced to boxers, solely because they were wearing boxing gloves, something they were not used to. “Don’t punch them, you fool, kick them!”
One of the best weapons in short range conflict is just a cup of liquid: water, coffee, soda, whatever. Splashed in their face it is as long as seconds of free time in which to aggress—a huge interval of advantage.
Good info posted. Thanks
Are you a self-defense instructor or similar?