Do bulletproof backpacks help keep our kids safe? Channel 2 investigates
With the uptick in mass shootings, some parents are buying bulletproof backpacks for their children.
Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell worked with law enforcement officers at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center to see if the backpacks work and how parents feel about overall school safety amid ongoing violence across the country.
“When Uvalde happened my daughter had just graduated from Pre-K. I grieve for those parents,” said Michael Garza, whose child attends a school within the Cobb County School District.
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There is no greater fear for a parent than their child being in a dangerous situation.
“I try to be positive for them but it’s somewhere in my mind every day. Sometimes it’s at the very front of my mind, like in the immediate weeks after a school shooting,” said Melissa Martin, whose children attend a school within the Cobb County School District.
“What really gets to me is when I understand that she’s going to go through some sort of drill and understanding what kind of anxiety or trauma that might actually cause her,” said Garza.
“We’ve had quite a few parents come in worried about school safety, the safety of their children at school and what they could do to augment their children’s safety,” said Rob Sheppard, manager of the TruPrep Emergency Preparedness Gun Shop.
Some parents are so worried they are buying bulletproof backpacks from TruPrep Emergency Preparedness in Cobb County.
Spartan Armor Systems makes the soft armor panels that are inserted into the back of the backpack. The panels are also sold on www.spartanarmorsystems.com.
The soft panels inside the backpacks are in compliance with the National Institute of Justice.
“These are going to stop handgun rounds up through and including 44 magnum. It doesn’t hurt to have it if you’d never use it, but better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it,” said Sheppard.
Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell joined law enforcement officials at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center to test the backpacks out.
The backpack was placed onto a mannequin. The front of the mannequin was covered in clay to represent the chest cavity of a human.
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“The intent here is to hopefully stop the round,” said Kevin Angell, Public Information Officer for the Georgia Public Safety Training Center.
The backpack was tested with a sig 9 mm first.
“The handgun, it actually did stop the round. We don’t see any penetration through the clay,” said Angell.
More shots were fired into the backpack with the same gun.
“We’ve got the impacts on the inside, in the soft panel. But we don’t have an exit on the back,” said Angell.
A submachine gun is the second weapon that was fired into the backpack.
“You see the impacts in the front, but again nothing through the backside,” said Angell.
The last weapon that was used is an AR-15.
“The impact is going to be a lot more devastating. The round passed through the backpack, any of its contents and through that soft panel into the chest cavity. This would be devastating,” said Angell.
Spartan Armor Systems released this statement after the test was performed.
“In this test the level IIIA backpack armor did its job in stopping handgun rounds, as it’s rated up to 44 magnums. In order to stop 5.56 or .223 rounds from an AR-15, another option would need to be selected. We’re in the process of developing a panel that would do just that,” said Damien Black, Chief Marketing Officer of Spartan Armor Systems.
Regardless of the results, Martin and Garza say they wouldn’t buy a bulletproof backpack for their children.
“I don’t believe that they would work in a real world setting in which somebody is intent on causing harm to elementary school kids,” said Angell.
“I’m very resistant to the notion of putting any sort of ownership on our children to protect themselves in schools. I feel like that’s our job as adults,” said Martin.
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