Is there any safety idea too stupid to get on TV?
I saw that knothead Glenn Beck pushing bulletproof backpacks for kids. Wonder if he owns stock in the company? That would be pretty sweet – pump up fear and hate, then rake in the cash.
Now you can provide on the spot protection against guns and knife violence!
Independently tested to the standards set by the National Institute for Justice to provide Level II ballistic protection, as found in most police body armor, at almost 1/10 the weight.
Yeah, because it only covers a small area on your child’s back, not the torso and vital organs like a police vest. But hey, it could help! The company’s website paints a pretty grim picture of school safety:
Since 1999 over 328 incidents have occurred, leaving 229 dead and 422 injured in school violence alone. That is an average of about 1 per week since the Columbine Tragedy. In almost 97% of these documented incidents, MJ Safety Solutions backpack could have provided the ballistic protection that could have saved lives.
Wait a minute. Even assuming these statistics weren’t from the general proving grounds of Charmin bathroom tissue, (and I strongly suspect that to be the case) there are something like 88,000 public schools in this country. Columbine was around 3,000 days ago so that’s around 264 million school days. Divided by 328 incidents, on any given school day your child would have roughly one in eight hundred thousand chance of an “incident” happening at his school…
This backpack can provide life saving defense for anyone: school children, educators, journalists and tourists to name a few. This is a full size, ultra leightweight backpack packed with features to make it practical for everyone.
…divided by the chance that the incident would even involve your child (schools are big places and most of the incidents are small-scale) and the vague subset of those cases where your child could turn around and present his or her backpack to the line of fire or the path of a knife at just the right instant to stop a bullet. I think that works out to about a one in 792 skabillion chance this backpack would ever do anything except be damned uncomfortable on the school bus.
And incidentally, how many handgun rounds could pass through a fully loaded school backpack? Have you looked at kids’ textbooks lately? This very thought has come up before. Just when you thought a safety idea couldn’t get ANY dumber, how about proposing keeping old textbooks under childrens’ desks as bulletproof shields? Yes, someone actually proposed that. :gulp:
I wonder what percentage of those “incidents” involved one kid clobbering another kid with his backpack?
I have a novel idea, why don’t we hold parents responsible for their child’s conduct at school.? No that won’t work, that would mean parents would have to discipline kids and that is not politically acceptable anymore.
This is just mind-numbingly dumb. Backpacks are worn on the back. The only conceivable way a life could be saved is if your kid is running from the shooter. Whereas in Columbine, the shooters had a plan and calculated what they were going to do and how.
Ya don’t need any statistics background to know this is Bulls***. They must be including catching a student with a gun as an incident. When most people are assuming an incident to be where a gun is actually fired. They also must be including student fights in their injuries number also. The whole thing smells rotten.
I was actually thinking the same thing. When I was in school, when I was wearing my backpack, it had about 5 textbooks, 5 folders, and a 5 subject ring binder. Would a bullet really travel through all of that? Even if it could I wouldn’t be swayed into buying a fear-based product.
I’m really surprised CNN didn’t drop Glen Beck back when he asked a racist question to the first US Muslim Congressman. The only thing I can think of is CNN wants someone that can compete with Bill O’Reilly.
Re textbooks as defense: 40 years ago in Iowa we had air raid/nuclear bomb drills where we were to crouch under our desks and protect the backs of our necks with a book. Same routine as for a tornado, but with a different siren alert.
I myself favor clothing kids in reactive body armor. Sure, the kids will look like little tanks dressed that way. But nervous parents will never again lie awake at night worrying about an RPG attack in the school yard. And isn’t their peace of mind worth it?
Yes, that must be it.
Or it could be that parents are not really allowed on the campus and have no idea what is going on during the day until things get out of hand. The option of course is to take the kids out of public schools and into private and/or religious schools to demonstrate “involvement” and responsible parenting.
Be involved; you get characterized as helicopter hovering (what an assinine turn of the words) over the Gen-Y/Gen-Z progeny. Be less involved, you’re self-centered and detached, abdicating parental responsibilities.
In either case, a good case can be made for the premise that public education is really insidious tyranny of government pushing the PC agenda.
These bulletproof backpacks seem like an OK idea to me. If someone wants to pony up a lot of cash for them, meh, I couldn’t care less. Their kid will STILL turn out obese and a generally worthless GenY/GenZ with undeservedly inflated self-esteem.
I think Mark Twain would have had a field day with this one. Were he alive today, I imagine him coming up with something like this:
Mothers, why protect the small of your child’s back when you can protect the whole child with far less expense and discomfort? Equip your child with one of my patented folding body bags today. At the first sign of trouble, the little tyke simply unfolds the bag, lies down inside, and zippers it shut. What could be simpler? What shooter is going to waste a bullet on a child that appears to be either dead, or in the act of suffocating himself? Too macabre you say? Very well. The man who believes that the best protection for your child is an aerosol can of shaving cream will be along shortly.