"Bulletproof" classroom products are delusions wrapped in deception

This is profiteering on the fears of the utterly delusional:

It’s the newest way to give parents peace of mind when they’re sending their children off to school post-Sandy Hook: bulletproof school supplies and some people are even giving them as gifts.

Is bulletproof the new normal in school accessories? The company Mighty Mojo thinks so. At the urging of a family member who was traumatized by a school lockdown, the firm developed a bullet-proof insert for backpacks or even binders. Students and parents loved the idea.

“They were excited about being able to defend themselves in situations they might not be able to otherwise,” says Steve Jurak who helped invent the almost $150 LifePlate Shield, which he says underwent rigorous testing.

“Panels are quite effective, it actually catches the bullet, it doesn’t ricochet.”

The San Diego company is getting orders from all over the U.S. including Philadelphia, and something it didn’t expect.

“We’ve actually gift-wrapped it and sent it off to nieces and nephews.”

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We’ve hammered on this sort of stupidity before.

These panels are far too small to cover enough of the body to be effective, even these larger whiteboards being marketed for teachers in the classrooms.

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As exposed as the model/teacher is here, the panels for students are much smaller, designed to fit inside backpacks or binders. Do students want to protect their heads or their hearts? They can’t have both.

If for some bizarre reason the shooter doesn’t simply shoot around the shield at completely unprotected parts of the body, the person holding up one of these panels is going to be unpleasantly surprised at the fact these shields are not “bulletproof” at all.

A shooter armed with almost any kind of centerfire rifle is going to fire a bullet with the energy to completely rip through the panel and through the human victim behind them. Neither of the shields mentioned will stop most centerfire rifle bullets. They are NIJ IIIA rated, which for all intents and purposes, means they are rated to defeat the majority of handgun bullets.

Calling them “bulletproof” is simply a blatant lie. They are bullet resistant.

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If the shooter is armed with merely a handgun, then these bullet-resistant panels may offer a certain amount of protection… for the first shot.

What these companies gloss over is the reality that any centerfire handgun bullet is going to hit these panels with tremendous force. That shot is likely to knock the panel out of the defender’s hands. Do you know many teachers—much less students—that have the strength to hold a ballistic panel in place after an impact that soldiers and police officers who have been shot in their ballistic vests often compare to a sledgehammer-like blow?

Since there are no armed guards or staff (since the faculty, staff and parents prefer “gun free zones”), the shooter is going to just keep shooting around the shield, blast it out of the way, or shoot through it until the victim behind it is dead.

Quite frankly, I view companies pushing such products with contempt. They profit from the delusions of the ignorant and the ideological who refuse to come to terms with the reality that Wayne LaPierre was right on a fundamental level.

The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.

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These “bulletproof” shields protect ideologies far better than they protect people.

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