I wondered when such things would begin to appear, several school shootings ago, assuming they must be right around the corner. Surely some clothing manufacturer was going to seize the opportunity!
It seems a simple enough thing to integrate some Kevlar into an unassuming looking garment. I realize that Kevlar ain’t cheap, but, hey, I’m pretty convinced they’d sell, whatever the cost. They could so easily be disguised as just another designer garment, including the logo. I mean, it could be done terribly stealth so no one could tell, easy enough I should think.
So why aren’t they out there in the market yet?
Think some clothing manufacture is working on it yet?
Kids wear the same backpack all the time, and adding a layer of Kevlar doesn’t add much weight or change the function of the backpack. But there’s a reason body armor comes as a separate garment and isn’t sown permanently into police and military uniforms. Those reasons apply equally, or more so, to a kid’s hoodie.
During my service time, our kevlar vests were big, bulky, and a bit on the stiff and heavy side for comfortable, casual wear. I couldn’t see any youngster wanting to wear one, especially in warm weather.
Maybe this gear has improved significantly since the 80s and 90s, when I was in.
Body armor isn’t just a layer of cloth; it is many layers of aramid and polyethylene fibers tightly woven into a vest which has to be secured tightly to the body to be effective in blunting the force of a bullet. Even lightweight body armor is constraining, uncomfortable in warm temperatures, and eventually breaks down due to body heat and perspiration. It does not protect the head or extremities (and yes, you can die or suffer permanent impairment from being shot in the arm or leg, cinematic nonsense about “just a flesh wound” aside). Soft armor below Level III (~15 mm thickness) will not reliably stop any rifle rounds without carrying a composite trauma plate, which only covers the upper inside torso.
So unless your suggestion is that we should dress children up for school like Special Forces troops in an assault stack, the idea that the solution to mass shootings in schools is to bulletproof children is implausible, not to mention absurd.
In reading the OP, I don’t think that was his suggestion, at all. If anything, the OP was just wondering why some budding capitalist has not seized the opportunity. If implausibility and absurdity were legitimate reasons not to employ extravagant safety measures, explain the TSA.
Because there is no performance requirement for efficacy in government agencies, and particularly in the Department of Homeland Security. We (at least those who pay attention) know that the TSA is purely security theater of the most sockish kind, but it is so far down on most peoples’ list of outrage that we just put up with this pointless government jobs program for out-of-work mall guards.
As for Kevlar ‘armored’ clothing, the first school shooting where roundnose 9mm or .223 bullets penetrate the supposed ‘protection’ would result in mass lawsuits for misprepresenting the protection offered by said apparel, disclaimers to the contrary notwithstanding. Body armor manufacturers are regularly sued by survivors or familes of the dead even though most make very clear the limitations of their products to protect against high velocity rounds or shots anywhere besides the front and back of the torso.
True, but if you have something protecting at least some part of you, it’s better than nothing at all, right? The same goes for bullet proof vests. The bad guy can shoot you in the face, but at least a good chunk of your center of mass is pretty well protected and should help with stray or poorly aimed bullets.
By your logic, why even hide behind a desk, might as well walk up to the shooter and get it over with.
Heavy is right. That sucker weighs 8 lbs. Just the thing to add to already too heavy, over-loaded school backpacks. Not to mention that it will set off the metal detectors that are coming something fierce.
I wore a vest when I was a deputy sheriff. The same thing could have been said of it. All the same, I preferred having it over not having it. A kevlar panel and few textbooks between my back and a shooter as I am unassing his AO sounds better than just my shirt. YMMV.
The textbooks will do nothing. A 9mmP will easily penetrate two or three textbooks with enough energy left to injure or kill, much less any centerfire rifle round. And most people will not have the presence of mind to place their armored backpack to cover critical locations when some random shooter starts firing, nor is the solution to teach children to be little Delta operators or talk in military terms. A school shoud not be an “area of operation” for anything more violent than a game of soccer or a debate tournament.