Bulletproof Backpack Sales Soar After Elementary School Shooting

Guns aren’t the only product flying off the shelves in the wake of the Connecticut elementary school shooting that killed 20 children and 7 adults. Parents hoping to shield their children from the terrible fate that befell the kids of Newtown are purchasing armored backpack, meant to protect fragile bodies from bullet fire.

Sadly, this seemingly drastic attempt to steel children to the whims of firearms might not even be enough to save their lives; the AP reports that “the armor is designed to stop bullets from handguns, not assault weapons like the one used in the shooting at the Newtown, Conn., school.” And Psychiatrists worry about the emotional implications, too, of arming children:

Anne Marie Albano, psychiatry director at Columbia University’s Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders, said parents should convey calmness, not anxiety.

‘‘This is not serving to keep children safe,’’ she said. ‘‘This is serving to increase their fear and their suspicion of their peers.’’

At Amendment II in Salt Lake City, sales of its children’s backpacks and armored inserts have increased, with 200 purchase requests Wednesday alone.

Armored backpacks aren’t the only military upgrade that youngsters are receiving in response to the massacre. Earlier this week, an 11 year-old boy brought a gun to school (unloaded, but with ammunition in his backpack), saying he wanted to protect himself from another potential mass shooting.