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I worked in Aviation security and still do on a consultancy basis, there is a list a mile long about what can and can't be taken into the main passenger compartment of an aircraft.
Some items can be used as a weapon, in fact most things can be, just look at what they hand out at mealtimes. Plastic cutlery which in many cases are sharper than stainless steel, dishes made from tough melamine plastic etc etc. What a lot of the travelling public don't seem to get, is items that can have the APPEARANCE of a weapon FROM A DISTANCE are also banned.
I know that a small collapsable tripod may seem a little extreme, but what if you're sitting 20 rows back from some guy that takes it out and starts to wave it about like a weapon, from that distance it's hard to tell what it is, it just looks shiny, and in the hands of someone drunk or mad it looks f**king scary. There's so many things I've come across that at first glance you would consider it ridiculous and draconian to ban them from an aircraft, yet when it's seen from a distance it looks completely different. I just has to LOOK like something nasty, I mean, how many banks, Petrol staions have been robbed with a banana etc in the pocket, a note slipped to the cashier?
As mickworldwide quite rightly points out, the attidude of the passenger is a factor as is the awareness of the guy who is meant to be doing the checking.
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