The Newtown, Conn., mass shooting of schoolchildren seems to have had an impact in one industry: body armor backpacks. Mother Jones reports that sales of the backpacks designed to protect kids during a school shooting, have “gone through the roof.”
Derek Williams, president of Amendment II, the Utah-based company that makes the packs along with lightweight body armor for military and police use, told the magazine, "I can't go into exact sales numbers, but basically we tripled our sales volume of backpacks that we typically do in a month—in one week."
Demand for the product has completely overwhelmed the company's website.
The carbon nanotube armor comes in kid-friendly themed Avengers or Disney princess versions, and at first, the company told Fox 13, just a handful were sold at gun shows. Then came the massacre last Friday.
The Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy has shone a light on the company. “Our armor was being bought to protect people, the ‘preppers,’ is the term,” Amendment II Chief Operating Officer Rich Brand told the Fox station. “At this point, it’s transcended to everyone. Anyone who’s sending out a child into the world, seeing what can happen now, they want to protect their children.”
Not everyone is on board with the idea of sending children to school armed for battle.
Maryann Martindale, executive director of Alliance for a Better Utah, told Fox 13, "Do we want to live in a society where we send our kids to school in Kevlar backpacks and arm our teachers? I think we create more chaos by responding that way.”