The BulletProof Backpack

How are these backpacks going to be worn? In front? Hate to break it to these fathers -- and I realize that they mean well -- but the heart goes in the front, the backpack goes in the back and while you might prevent a spinal cord injury or two you're not going to make a dent in any full-on (or to the side) shootings.

Since I only live 3 houses away from a middle school I often take my .280 Remington up on the roof to plink away at 5th graders walking to school in the mornings. I always aim for the knees unless I think they might be illegal immigrants then I aim for the frontal lobes. I'm not at all concerned about back packs.

Seems like a silly idea to me.

It's a way to make money, nothing more.

Imagine how disconcerting it would be to get a text book with a bullet hole in it. Now, schools no longer have to worry about that. They can just wipe the blood off and be happy knowing that no bullet will penetrate that backpack to damage their valuable property. In fact, this should drive down the cost of schooling because we will never have to replace our text books again. (Except of course for the ones that promote evolution as if it were scientific.)

Candidate says bulletproof books could save lives in school shootings
NBC News Channel
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Last Updated: 10/24/2006 1:58:36 PM


A retired veteran and candidate for Oklahoma State School Superintendent says he wants to make schools safer by creating bulletproof textbooks.

Bill Crozier says the books could give students and teachers a fighting chance if there's a shooting at their school.

"Our experiment was as scientific as we could make it, just two or three people who had been in the military,? says Crozier.

Crozier, who is running for state superintendent, took to an open field near Minco to see if a text book could stop a bullet during a school shooting. He believes students could use the reading material while running away from an attacker.

"The reason we are doing this experiment,? he says, ?is because there was a kid in Fort Gibson who was shot in the back but the bullet did not penetrate his textbook."

Using an assault rifle and various pistols, Crozier and his colleagues shot several textbooks in a home-made video.

"Both of the pistols were stopped about two thirds of the way through the books,? he says, ?and of course the rifle shot went all the way through, so there are some things that we thought could be improved on."

The major improvements include possibly making the book covers out of Kevlar, the same material used in bullet proof vests.

Crozier knows his idea might not win an election, but he believes it could save lives.

"I think it is spawning conversation and discussion, which I think we need to do for safety, and I think this will relieve a lot of people's minds in the school if they know there?s some way that they could fight back."

Crozier says the idea is still in its initial stages and he has no idea how much it would cost to cover the books.

When asked about Crozier's idea, current state superintendent Sandy Garrett said she has implemented a state-wide, anonymous safety hotline for schools.

In addition, every school is required to have a Safe School Committee and a state-issued Safe School handbook.

WBIR.com

I think it's a great idea. If I were a student who came under bullet attack, I would want to make sure my PB&J would not be harmed.

If all the kids hae bullet-proof books, do they still need a bullet-proof backpack?

where's the profit in that? I sell 'em crack.... keeps 'em coming back everyday with more cash. Sure occasionally if one of them stiffs you you have to shoot 'em just to make an example but dys..... you gotta keep an eye on the bottom line buddy.

A lot of these shootings occur at lower income type schools Slap. Believe me, no bullet can penetrate welfare peanut butter.

Another way to extract money from overly fearful parents.

But have they up-armored the school buses?

Think of the children!

Aren't the kids supposed to wear helmets for protection, too?

Most school busses lack seatbelts--except for the driver.

From the age of 8,
I wore a 2 inch .38 caliber revolver for protection,
until I up graded to a .44 some years thereafter.
David

jes, the backstraps have a second smaller set in which the student can insert their arms, thus making the backpack act as a shield.
Ya know, reading all your snotty remarks , based upon some desire to sound "clever", yet totally clueless about solving a national growing problem, Im shaking my head thinking that maybe this place has gotten too far left for me. Most everone here is deriding the attempts by the fathers to create a product to serve as a defensive shield and dismissed it a "mobeymaking scheme". SO what? if it has any testable servicability. Many of you may not know that a few kids at Columbine were shot at close range with defensive signs clear on their bodies. (They put up their hands and the killers shot right through them). Maube the "baxkpack" could have saved a few more.. What a bunch of snibing Monday morning qbacks you are.

The fathers were trying something that had, heretofore, not been tried,, theyve maybe upped the safety level a few notches should their kids come under fire (Im sure well have an incident in some upper middle class school or rural school this year).
You seem to have collectively decided that you all know better and that protecting ones kids is something to be surrendered. YA know, for once , Om sig's ideas dont sound bad.

Our own safety and sceurity subcontractor did a series of internal analyses of the Columbine, Peducah, upstate Wisconsin, and U of Va.
Part of the problem that prevented saving lives was "Police procedures" wherein the police actually are required to advance in a line fashion, clearing rooms behind and establishing a phalanx entry point . Much rethinking for up armored vehicles and much better body armor is being condidered for rapid deployment.(Body armor is useless for side wounds unless its the kind thats a total shiled.)

Having more security armed and among the student body is also a good preventive but, like any U, this feature will be cliped at the first budgetary tightening.

SO, providing a personal armor shiled, no matter what its shape, even if kids walk around with Masai shields made of kevlar, if it helps save a few lives whats to make fun of?

I think Im gonna join a thread with some of our gun advocates, they sometimes make lots more sense.

What an ass.

your sense of humor sucks


farmerman - I don't see any harm in what these fathers are doing. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It can't hurt.

The ecurity issue is one that needs filling by changes of tactics and arming more plainclothes security folks.
The arming of everyone as David seeks, is silly and the money could better be spent by providing schools with more armed personnel and certain full body armored elite teams that would practice "urban assault" tactics.

Giving the kids a little bit more security from "backpacks" is a way to better call attention to the needs fo real bullet stopping means or designs of "safe rooms" wherein kids from 2 or 3 classrooms could huddle, safe in the knowledge that they cant be shot up. Maybe these "backpacks< can serve as a short duration safety shield as kids are herded into safe rooms.

(Mny new school boards are reconfiguring their designs of new schools based upon safety and security emergency procedures that dont only include fires) I think the past schoolboard and Regents mentality that "it cant possibly happen here" has been totally and permanently demolished


The perps are universally narcissistic and have some major wiring problems , so , once they begin their acting, its too late, the time for intervention has passed and these kids must be neutralized as quickly as possible. urban assault means uses much more rapid deployment than the past security teams were used to. Columbine was a perfect example where kids were being killed while police were methodically closing in on the perps. Its no critcism of them, they were instructed to assume that the perps could meld right into the crowd of schoolkids. Arming everyone (like David states regularly) would not be a sane solution because the number of accidental shootings (like "friendly fire" incidents could make a bad situation much worse).

Ao yeh, Im a proponent of "what can it hurt" for the armored backpacks, these along with a phaseII plan to get the kids to a sfaety point is part of a comprehensive plan for increased safety..

I think that most people here find it irresistable to be clever rather than del with problems. MAybe they dont have kids of their own. to worry about.
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Given the problems kids are having with developing back problems from carrying around backpacks that are already too heavy (and young spines do NOT need this kind of trouble), docs are recommending that children do not carry knapsacks over quite a low weight - and are instead recommending those rolling bags for transporting books.

Saying the knapsacks weigh less than a 15 pound bullet-proof vest is not a selling point.