Demand grows for bulletproof backpack shields
(CNN) — Demand is growing for a bulletproof backpack insert billed as a protection for children during school shootings.
A company in Ohio says that interest has gone through the roof since the shooting in Parkland, Florida.
“We’ve had, I would say a 100 to 200 percent increase certainly in response,” said Matt White, the director of marketing for ShotStop Ballistics.
The backpack inserts are one-quarter inch thick and weigh about a pound. They’re made from the company’s Duritium technology, which can block bullets from handguns and some rifles, but not from all weapons, including an AR-15.
The shields come in hard or soft designs and cost $110.
“The fact that you’re even here and we’re talking about it, it’s terrible,” White said. “It’s not something that we ever envisioned. It’s not something that we had planned for, but the potential with what’s out there now, it’s one more layer of safety.”
White said the bulletproof product was originally meant as a clipboard for police officers to provide added protection during traffic stops.
Some believe sending kids off to school with the shield only creates more fear and anxiety.
“It’s not right. I mean, come on,” said Dave Spearing, who has grandchildren in the Cuyahoga Falls School District. “Schools are safe.”
But Kendall Kubus, a recent Archbishop Hoban High School graduate, sees it differently.
“I think it’s protecting us against if that is a scenario, we have that protection and parents have that in their mind that, “Okay, my child is there. They’re going to be safer.”‘