Retailers Are Stocking Bulletproof Backpacks

Last weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, have renewed attention for bulletproof backpacks and backpack inserts.

At retailers like Home Depot, Kmart, and independent outlets, bulletproof items are marketed toward parents shopping for school supplies—and they’re selling more than ever.

• Texas-based ReadyToGoSurvival.com reportedly sold 300 bulletproof backpacks in the two days following last weekend’s shootings. It typically sells 100 backpacks per month.
• “Our sales of our backpacks and inserts have increased approximately 200% over the past few years,” Joe Curran, founder of the bulletproof backpack brand BulletBlocker, told CNBC.
• After the school shooting in Parkland, FL, last year, local retailers sold out of their bulletproof backpack inventories.

These products offer some protection, but politicians and parents have criticized them for capitalizing on a public health issue. Additionally, most bulletproof backpacks aren’t equipped to withstand the force of an AR-15, the semiautomatic assault rifle used in recent shootings.

+ While we’re here: More retail workers than police officers were killed by homicide every year between 2012 and 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Walmart has since required rigorous active shooter protection training for in-store associates.