Time to ban long pointed kitchen knives

Why are kitchen knives pointed? Goodness only knows. You don't need the point unless you are performing specialist butchery or fishmongery. (The Chinese use blunt cleavers for most of their cooking).

But the point is the thing that tends to be the feature of the knife which causes serious injury or death. Bear in mind that an estimated 50% of stabbings involve kitchen knives.

Alex Wilcock often slips in this question at blogging interviews: "What would you ban?"

I have always thought about what I would ban and have ended up with a blank sheet of paper (no I wouldn't ban blank sheets of paper!). But in this case, I would make an exception. A group of surgeons says that it is the point of long knives that does all the damage and kills or seriously injures people: "A pointed long blade pierces the body like 'cutting into a ripe melon' ".