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In the last week the sale of bulletproof backpacks has increased 200%-300% according to cnn.com.  Companies like Guard Dog Security, Bullet Blocker, The Home Security Store and others, have seen a major increase in sales during the weekend school shopping. It’s apparent to anyone with access to news that school shootings are increasing by sickening numbers.  Joe Curran, a former sheriff’s deputy, founded Bullet Blocker 12 years ago after the shooting at Virginia Tech that killed 33 people.  With two school-aged children Joe decided to slip some body armor into their backpacks and when classmates parents started asking for inserts for their children it grew into a business.  The backpacks range anywhere from $160 to $490.   You can find one for as low as $119 on The Home Security Superstores website and you can even find a few with Emoji’s designs.  The site also sells the less expensive inserts for around $70 and up depending on size and level of protection with 3A being the highest I found.  Office Depot and Home Depot also offer a few options of bulletproof backpacks.  I found there are even options for these backpacks to convert them into bulletproof vests, but if you think about it, just wearing the backpack on the front would do the same thing.  I’m not opposed to my son having a bulletproof backpack, it’s the absolutely necessary explanation that be very hard for me.  Sending your kiddo to school with a bulletproof backpack could end up being useless if you don’t sit them down and explain to them how they can use it to protect themselves if they needed to and in what situations they may need to do so.  Explaining to my ten year old that there may come a time when someone with bad intentions could come into his school with a gun for the purpose of harming him and his classmates and teachers would be so hard for me, I’m not even sure how I would do it.  What you’re doing when you have this conversation is telling your child that it’s possible for them to be in situation that you can’t protect them from, and as any parent knows, that’s a promise you make to your children all the time.  I know I have. I’ve told my son that there is nothing on this earth that could keep me from protecting him with every breath in my body but in reality that isn’t true, is it? Our children look to us for comfort and protection in times of fear and having this conversation with them would mean telling them there are situations when you can’t give that to them.  I would worry that it would mean my son would start to feel unsafe at school and that’s not healthy at all.  Then again a bulletproof backpack could save his life one day if goodness forbid, something awful were to happen.  It’s a hard decision to make but with shootings like the ones we’ve seen in the last week on the rise with no slowing down in sight, I’m hard pressed not to just go ahead and make the purchase, ready my self for the talk and hope my son will understand that even though there are times when I can’t be around to protect him, at least I’m doing everything within my power to give him the tools to protect himself if he has to.

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