Inside America’s Growing Bulletproof Clothing Industry

A contrasting point to the American trend: where I live (Vancouver, Canada) it is illegal to possess bulletproof or stab-proof clothing without a permit. (!) In fact, even DIY-ing your own protection is illegal without a permit.<p>Personally, I find this philosophically hard to reconcile.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www2.gov.bc.ca&#x2F;gov&#x2F;content&#x2F;employment-business&#x2F;business&#x2F;security-services&#x2F;body-armour" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www2.gov.bc.ca&#x2F;gov&#x2F;content&#x2F;employment-business&#x2F;busin...</a>

GF&#x27;s kids came home yesterday talking about school shooting safety (hit perp with a fire extinguisher -- which is too heavy for any of them to lift), the safe closet, etc.<p>Their chance of being shot is infinitesimal, while the chance of choking or dying in traffic (1K kids&#x2F;year in the USA, for example) is real. But there is no training on what to do in these cases.<p>Seems like it&#x27;s all part of the terrorization of the populace, of which this clothing is a symptom.

Lack of any significant gun control is one of the biggest motivations for me to consider moving out of the states. My wife is from Australia and it seems as if it were a night and day difference when it comes to gun control. I wish our founding fathers had written something more explicit and more prohibitive so that perhaps more lives could have been saved to gun violence.<p>I may sound paranoid but I may end up taking a serious look at some of these options in the near future.

I looked up a couple of these and it seems like a normal jacket with hidden pockets for bullet proof plates of armor to go over your vital organs. In retrospect, I guess that is the only way they could do it - but something about the article had me imagining something higher tech, like somehow the fabric was tougher or durable enough to stop bullets. My imagination was the bullet proof spray from Richie Rich, but the reality seems closer to wearing a bulletproof vest under your coat.

How much does this stuff weigh?!<p>My flak with Level IV SAPI plates was like 35 pounds, that was just for the armor and nylon, and it was roughly tank top shaped. God only knows what something jacket-sized would weigh if it were lined in ballistic ceramic plates.<p>The thought of international VIP types trudging around like a big ol&#x27; bulletproof Harrison Bergeron is actually kind of funny now that I think more about it.

In the UK about ten years ago there was a rash of news reports about children being sent to schools in tough neighbourhoods wearing stab-proof clothing. It was never clear whether it was commonplace or just marketing from a startup.<p>I haven’t seen anything since then in the media but the startup from the time appears to have grown their product range significantly. (I won’t name them but a quick google will find a few outlets).

I&#x27;m honestly still baffled by how the concept of &quot;freedom&quot; got conflated with gun ownership in the US.<p>Personally I prefer the freedom of not having to be worried about being shot by any disgruntled imbecile who takes advantage of his &quot;right&quot; to a gun.<p>I would really appreciate an explanation of this. Right now it seams like just a fantastic marketing&#x2F;brainwashing strategy by the NRA but I would love to hear a well explained argument for this.