The latest fashion trend in mass shootings includes stylish backpacks and they’re selling like hotcakes guns and ammo:
The Denver company that supplied Jaliyah’s rucksack, Elite Sterling Security, has sold over 300 in the last two months and received inquiries from some 2,000 families across the US. It is also in discussion with more than a dozen schools in Colorado about equipping them with ballistic safety vests, a scaled-down version of military uniforms designed to hang in classroom cupboards for children to wear in an emergency.
I can hear the opening line of the sales pitch: “How much do you love your children?”
Thinkprogress notes,
School districts in Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and California are already stocking up on bulletproof supplies, and one school in Maryland has amassed 80 ballistic shields in its classrooms. None of this equipment comes cheap, and the backpacks are only meant to stop a bullet from a handgun, not assault weapons like the one used in Newtown.
Psychiatrists warn that militarizing schools could cause long-term harm to children. “This is serving to increase their fear and their suspicion of their peers,’’ a psychiatry director told the Associated Press.
Yes! But how well do they protect your explosives? And do they come with standard issue AR-15 and armor piercing bullets?
Yeah, freedom! Now off you go, kids:
Duck & Cover Forever! Reuters/Rick Wilking