Scared parents are buying bulletproof backpacks for their children, following the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting massacre, according to manufacturers and reports.
While some of the backpacks can cost as much as $400, and detractors say they can only cover a small portion of a child's or an adult's body, manufacturers report that sales have multiplied as much as eight-fold, the
New York Post reports.
"It can happen anywhere," says one parent, frightened for her children's safety at their school. "Anyone can have a weapon."
"We are always making awareness of the training and security for schools, but, sadly, it is just at a moment of a tragedy that they look for it," says Carolina Ballesteros, marketing manager of MC Armor.
Another manufacturer of bulletproof backpacks, Leatherback, posted on Instagram last week: "Just as we educate and prepare our children in school for what to do in the event of a fire, we now must do the same for an active shooter. We have fire extinguishers for fires, and now bulletproof backpacks."
Some retailers are not stocking the backpacks over liability concerns.
As one schoolteacher commented to the Dallas Morning News, the systemic problem of school shootings in the United States needs to be addressed at the root level by tackling the issue of gun control. Giving children bulletproof backpacks does not address gun control, a highly charged and thorny issue in the United States.
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