Shielding more Than SWAT

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 8/27/20 | R Taylor

[w1n1]

Handheld Armor Has Come A Long Way Since Roman Times - Turn on the 6 o’clock news, and eventually you’ll see a "bulletproof" shield in use. They're standard equipment for law enforcement entry teams, but thanks to Sandy Hook, civilian-market shields now include everything from bulletproof clipboards and backpacks to full-on police-style shields.
School districts in a number of states have started working shields disguised as whiteboards into their "lockdown” strategies. "For the past 15 years, most of what we've done is for the military," says Emily Heinauer with Hardwire LLC (hardwirellc.com). We armored the sides of many of the trucks going to Iraq and Afghanistan.

During that time we started making clipboards for law enforcement, and after Sandy Hook, we adapted that to bulletproof whiteboards for educational and commercial settings. Our school and home products have dual functionality as dry erase boards for daily use and ballistic protection.” A Hardwire Level IIIA whiteboard weighs less than 4 pounds, and measures 18 inches by 20 inches. While small by comparison to a fullsize shield, it sells for under $300, and it's practical. Backpack inserts go for even less.

A BALLISTIC SHIELD ACTS like a bulletproof vest with a handle. It is rated like a vest (IIIA, III, IV), and has similar capabilities. Depending on when the shield was made, it could contain any of several fibers, including Dyneema. The hard format of the shield allows using polyethylene fibers to stabilize and protect the material from humidity, wear and UV light, making it vastly more durable. Typical examples last for decades. (Soft Kevlar armor vests degrade when exposed to moisture and UV light, and must be replaced every few years.) The typical polycarbonate view port stops bullets, helping the overall shield to absorb bullets like a sponge.

But aren't shields really heavy? Not anymore. The total weight of a typical IIIA shield has dropped from around 40 pounds to a little over 20, including on-board floodlights. For the officer in the field, that's tremendous because the "shield man" does heavy, surprisingly technical work. For the home defender who isn't built like a SWAT cop, the lighter shields offer mobility, and smaller-bodied people can use them effectively.

ROMAN LEGIONNAIRES LOVED THE curved-rectangle "scutum" shield for its wide arc of protection, and its ability to interlock with a neighbor’s shield to form a continuous wall. Modern shield makers have taken the hint, and by the end of our class, my group formed into miniature versions of the old Roman "tortoise".
For the static defender, the curved rectangle offers a protective arc, coupled with a wide viewing area (hold your forehead against the top of the view port). In Simunition fights with my classmates, a moving shield man was terribly vulnerable to shots fired at the legs, but if he knelt and anchored his pistol's trigger guard against the side of the shield, he offered no target at all. Read the rest of SWAT shields.

[BiteYourSelf]

Deploy the batshield Robin.