Editor warns me that an Object may produce a NPE in caught NullPointerException

Now, this isn't a serious problem, but why does the editor warn me that this

May produce a NPE?

String item = null;
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);

if(scanner.nextInt == 1)
{
    item = "weapon";
}

try
{ /*Warning \/\/\/ here */
    if(item.equals("weapon"))
    {
        //things....
    }
}
catch(NullPointerException e)
{
    e.printStackTrace();
}