Eh, of course it was rooted in good intention. As Mother explained to me, the rule was originally written to prevent students from wearing clothing with tobacco labels on it.
Sidenote: My poor mother had to deal with my sister getting a write up for wearing a camo Levi Garrett chewing tobacco hat during senior week.
However, in the time of zero tolerance, it of course was expanded to include weapons and such.
A couple years back, the rule was revised because of the growing population of Browning hats with the 14-18 year old male redneck population.
Still no shirts with guns, booze, or tobacco though.
Heck, in NJROTC we couldn't wear our utilities on school grounds because of a no camo rule.