Bulletproof backpacks: false sense of security?

Let’s see. Here’s a back-to-school shopping list: notebooks, pens, highlighters, index cards, bulletproof backpack.

How’s that again? Bulletproof backpack?

That’s right. In the wake of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton earlier this month, bulletproof backpacks have become the must-have accessory for this school year.

Apparently, it has become a big moneymaker for the companies that deal in these products, although security experts are concerned that it could give those who wear them and their parents and loved ones a false sense of security.

The manufacturers report a surge in sales during the past two weeks. With the start of a new school year, parents are alarmed that their children’s school will be the next to be attacked, and they are thrashing about trying to find anything that can add an extra layer of protection.

Although these backpacks are getting a lot of buzz these days, some had been on the market for at least six years, but now other companies are coming out with their versions.

Guard Dog Security began selling them after the Sandy Hook shootings in Connecticut in 2013; there was a similar uptick in sales after the Feb. 14 shootings at Parkland, Florida, in 2018.

“We always see spikes in sales in the days or weeks after shootings,” said Steve Naremore, CEO of TuffyPacks, who said his firm’s sales rose 300 percent in a week after the two most recent high-profile shootings.

The problem is that there is little evidence that these backpacks, which can be pricey — $100 to $500 — can save a life in some shootings. Some experts have been critical of company claims about safety levels of the materials that are used, but other law enforcement professionals see them as an added safety tool.

My research did not turn up any instance where one of these backpacks saved a life, but neither did it show that anyone wearing one was killed or injured.

For one thing, they are virtually ineffective against assault rifles, which have become the weapon of choice of many of the shooters in these crimes. In Dayton, for example, the 24-year-old murderer got off 41 shots in just 30 seconds from his .223-caliber high-capacity rifle, killing nine and wounding 27 before police killed him.

The makers of the Streetwise bulletproof children’s backpack say it provides “normal utility like any other school bag but stops nearly all handgun shots, including 9 mm and .44 Magnum bullets.” The bags are tested to the highest government standards, the company adds.

Since the backpack is aimed at style-conscious youngsters and teenagers, it is designed first of all to be very fashionable and smart-looking, said Gabi Siboni of ArmorMe, another of the companies whose sales have skyrocketed.

For those who prefer a less expensive alternative, there is the BulletSafe backpack panel which transforms a conventional backpack into a bulletproof backpack. The panel uses the same ballistic materials in a bulletproof vest, and the maker says it will stop “almost all handgun rounds, including a .44 Magnum.”

The panel maker says it is preferable to a bulletproof backpack because once the conventional backpack is worn out or torn, it can no longer be used effectively as a deterrent. The panel, on the other hand, can be moved from backpack to backpack and is guaranteed for five years.

There is also a metal shield that sells for about $50 that can be inserted into the bulletproof backpack. Tests conducted in North Carolina showed that this additional layer of protection prevented an AR-15 bullet from piercing a human body.

I don’t know about you, but if I see the word “bulletproof,” I’m thinking that it will stop a bullet — any bullet — but that’s not the case with most of the products on the market.

Aside from that, there is the practical question of when do students wear backpacks. They wear them if they walk to school. On a school bus, some may wear them, but others take them off for more comfort.

They will wear them in the halls going from class to class, unless prohibited from wearing backpacks during school hours, but in the classroom they remove them and put them on the floor. Expecting students to grab for their backpacks if a shooter bursts into their classroom is a stretch in my mind.

There are also some schools — Lehighton, Palmerton, Pleasant Valley, Northern Lehigh and Northwestern Lehigh high schools are among them — which, for security purposes, require that backpacks and book bags be left in students’ lockers.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com