I'm not against the idea, given that the gear you get at the beginning isn't valuable enough to promote registration farming of those items.
I agree with Jovanka in the sense that anyone who knows the game doesn't need it, and anyone new won't be able to keep it. I can see it from an immersion standpoint though. Waking up in a cave you've been hiding out in, I see no reason why you wouldn't have a weapon of some sort. Every NPC seems to have a weapon of some sort, I would think your character would probably have one if they were traveling the wastes.
I've always wondered what the hell I was doing hiding in a cave with a rock, a soda, or any of the other useless items we spawn with.