I can see the desire for hand held weapons stemming form an inability to retaliate when an enemy ship gets on your blind side. This situation resulted from a breakdown in team work. The captain failed to give the gunners a shot, the engineers failed to keep the turning engines working for the pilot, and the gunner failed to kill the target before it could give damage the engineer's components. Providing personal weapons to allow people to fight as individuals will not help people learn to work together as a team.
I wouldn't mind a flair gun, as an alternative to the spy glass, that can illuminate clouds available as a hand held device. So long as it has no combat use. Like wise I wouldn't mind Moonshine being something I can pour directly into the engines (and my self).