Originally Posted by
coachrowsey
why would one even say anything

As others have pointed out ... because in its War on the Unusual, TSA continuously asks passengers to report anything unusual, as one of the Deputized Layers of Security(TM). Of course, "reporting anything unusual" removes any personal judgment from the process ... like noticing, for example, that if you're sitting on the penknife, then there's absolutely no way that anyone else can use it to cause trouble, effectively neutralizing the threat.