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Fathers Create Bulletproof Backpacks
The Indy Channel ^ | 08/10/07

Posted on 08/10/2007 4:57:23 AM PDT by Abathar

BOSTON -- It's time for parents to make the annual trek to get back-to-school items, which usually includes jeans, jerseys and a few notebooks.

Boston television station WCVB reported Thursday that a couple of Boston men want parents to consider something else -- a bulletproof backpack.

"They have them with them on the floor, on their laps, on the bus. They always have a backpack," said Joe Curran, of My Child's Pack.

It started with the Columbine shooting in 1999. Curran and Mike Pelonzi said that they watched and worried for their own children. They had the idea to hide bulletproof material inside a backpack. They call it defensive action.

"If the kid has a backpack next to them, or under the desk, they can pick it up, the straps act as a handle and it becomes a shield," Curran said.

It's much lighter than a 15-pound police vest. After three years of experimenting, the backpacks that were tested by an outside lab ranked threat level two. It stops an assortment of bullets, including 9-millimeter hollow point bullets. The fathers researched school shootings from 1900 to this year.

They will sell for $175, but do the special book bags play upon paranoia when most schools are called safe?

"I want to keep my kid safe," Curran said. "I don't care what you do -- if you want to fight the good fight or fix the world's hurts, I can't help you, but my kids are going to be safe because of these backpacks."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: backtoschool; banglist; schoolviolence
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Good idea, but my kids 8" thick stack of books will probably stop a 9MM as well as this will, the problem is will they think to use it when put into that situation? Most kids will panic, drop the bag and run away unless its a hostage situation and they have time to think and remember what they have and how to use it.
1 posted on 08/10/2007 4:57:25 AM PDT by Abathar
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To: Abathar

Won’t do much good in schools requiring ‘see-thru’ packs.


2 posted on 08/10/2007 5:00:31 AM PDT by EBH
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To: EBH

I haven’t heard of that requirement, they must not have metal detectors yet.


3 posted on 08/10/2007 5:03:06 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly catching hell for posting without reading the article since 2004)
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To: Abathar
...my kids 8" thick stack of books will probably stop a 9MM as well as this will...

Huh, now you've gone and made me curious. I have some old textbooks downstairs I'm going to have to try my own hardware on...

4 posted on 08/10/2007 5:07:10 AM PDT by Ladysmith ((NRA, SAS) 9/11: Many of us REFUSE to Forget!!)
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To: EBH
Ditto from a parent in another “mesh net or clear plastic backpack” public school.

With three minutes between classes students carry all their books with them during the day.

In this day and age I can never figure out why they don’t have the schools books on CDs. I’d pay $10 a class to have the CD at home so the kids don’t have to cart the books to and from school.

5 posted on 08/10/2007 5:07:38 AM PDT by PeteB570 (Guns, what real men want for Christmas)
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To: Abathar

How does the Israel secure their children.. Gramma Checks Ids while Grampa and a few of his friends hang around a short distance away with Uzi,s.

Here the Leaders of the Public Teachers Union NEA pray for massacres.....helps with their Marxist Political Agenda.

W


6 posted on 08/10/2007 5:08:52 AM PDT by WLR
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To: PeteB570

Books, their purchase and the propaganda within them is just another aspect of the Public Education Con.

W


7 posted on 08/10/2007 5:10:56 AM PDT by WLR
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To: Ladysmith

I have shot books before, they make a great bullet catch, within reason. A couple of thick hardcover books like the kids carry will stop a 9MM no problem, and would probably hurt a whole lot less than bulletproof material would also.


8 posted on 08/10/2007 5:12:50 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly catching hell for posting without reading the article since 2004)
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To: EBH
"Won’t do much good in schools requiring ‘see-thru’ packs."

If I were designing such a beast, the Kevlar would be in the layer of fabric at the part of the backpack immediately against the wearer's skin--which doesn't need to be "see-through".

9 posted on 08/10/2007 5:13:13 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel-NRA)
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To: Abathar

Your kids carry around an 8” thick stack of books all day long? Your kids must be the only ones who do this. Kids I know visit their lockers several times a day to swap out books. I personally have never met anyone who carries an 8” stack of books on them all day.


10 posted on 08/10/2007 5:14:52 AM PDT by CometBaby (You can twist perceptions .. reality won't budge!)
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To: PeteB570
Many, MANY of the book sellers do offer the books on CD, and often the schools have permission to make copies of the CD's to give out to kids. So why don't they? Lots of kids don't have computers. So the school's just don't make them available.

When your kids get their books, go to the publisher's website and see if there is a companion CD. Then I suggest you contact the school superintendent's office and ask to be put in touch with the book room and see if you can get the CD's for your kids.

11 posted on 08/10/2007 5:15:58 AM PDT by SoftballMominVA (Never argue with an idiot. He will bring you down to his level and beat you with experience)
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To: CometBaby

I carried easily that much when I was in school.


12 posted on 08/10/2007 5:19:47 AM PDT by Sloth (You being wrong & me being closed-minded are not the same thing, nor are they mutually exclusive.)
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To: Abathar
Bulletproof backpack, no such thing as “bulletproof” bullet resistant yes. I would bet the state of Massachusetts has a law outlawing the public use of bulletresistent vests AKA backpacks.
13 posted on 08/10/2007 5:20:58 AM PDT by tiger-one (The night has a thousand eyes)
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To: Abathar

How many books will it take to stop a 7.62 X 39, or a .357?


14 posted on 08/10/2007 5:23:01 AM PDT by tiger-one (The night has a thousand eyes)
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To: Abathar
Just too damned bad that we've come to this, but one must understand that multiculturism does come with a price.
15 posted on 08/10/2007 5:24:59 AM PDT by davisfh
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To: Abathar

More of a wipe-up-the-blood solution than stopping the bleeding. The sheeple will buy into it... they know that the courts/cops won’t protect them.


16 posted on 08/10/2007 5:25:30 AM PDT by johnny7 ("But that one on the far left... he had crazy eyes")
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To: Abathar

Proliferation of such body armor would make it cheaper in the long run. In the rare event of another Columbine, the shooters would then be not only well armed, but well protected from assault using confiscated armored bookbags for their own protction.


17 posted on 08/10/2007 5:25:45 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze
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To: CometBaby

8” stack is nothing. A typical high school junior at our school is probably carrying 12” - think US History book (mine back in the day was 3” - same book I saw as a freshman at Univ. of Ill, btw!), advanced chemistry, 3rd year foreign language, a stack of paperbooks for the Lit class, etc.


18 posted on 08/10/2007 5:28:25 AM PDT by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: Abathar

The apocalypse is upon us


19 posted on 08/10/2007 5:31:18 AM PDT by PurpleMan
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To: CometBaby
My oldest does, my other usually has 2 or 3, but our HS is so big she doesn’t have time to get to her locker and back to the other side of the school in time. Maybe this year she will have classes closer.
20 posted on 08/10/2007 5:31:23 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly catching hell for posting without reading the article since 2004)
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