This story comes up occasionally and is always misrepresented. Nowhere in the article does it say all knives with points. Nor did the government consider it, beyond being asked to comment on the journal article.
The proposal was from a hospital research group who argued that many stabbings are impulsive and that long knives cause extremely serious penetration injuries. So they suggested banning those knives for home use, or at least blunting the tips.
The response to this is usually "well people could sharpen them?" and sure, but the purpose is risk mitigation. You'd still be able to buy a smaller pointed knife if you wanted.
> The researchers said a short pointed knife may cause a substantial superficial wound if used in an assault - but is unlikely to penetrate to inner organs.
They allegedly consulted with chefs who agreed that if you really need to use the tip, a paring knife would be OK. Anecdotally I'd agree - the only thing I use the tip of my chef's knife for is for opening packaging.
A strict reading of the law in many US cities classifies nerf and airsoft guns as deadly weapons regardless of the velocities involved. I don't think that gets applied often (ever?), but a few people have gotten deadly weapon charges for using BB guns, so the line isn't too far away. With that as the backdrop I wouldn't be surprised at sharpened rulers being classified as knives (especially as pertaining to laws regarding weapons near schools).
I might be off base here, but I think those kinds of bogus laws are usually applied selectively in situations where any reasonable observer would agree that the perpetrator ought to be charged with something, but there isn't anything better to stick them with. The danger of course is that everyone always being guilty of something allows for less desirable forms of selective enforcement (race, gender, journalism, protests, teenagers), intentionally or not.
(from 2005 but it was brought up again last year...)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4581871.stm#:~:text=%22Off...