"Your child's safety; Your piece of mind, is our business." So reads an advertisement for BulletBlocker, a company selling bulletproof backpacks and other body armor for children. Since the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 children dead, BulletBlocker and other companies like it have seen a massive surge in demand for the bags. "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," says Derek Williams, the president of Amendment II, which sells a variety of bulletproof backpacks for $300 each. The steep price and the opportunistic promotion of the bags has led some to accuse these companies of profiting from a national tragedy.
"With thoughts of defenseless children seared into the national consciousness, the company doesn't plan on letting the crisis go to waste," writes Tim Murphy at Mother Jones. Of course, Williams claims he just wants to keep kids safe. "We want to be sensitive to how we do that, but we are gonna try to get the word out that this product does exist," he says.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Today's political cartoons - November 2, 2024Cartoons Saturday's cartoons - anti-fascism, early voter turnout, and more
-
Geoff Capes obituary: shot-putter who became the World’s Strongest ManIn the Spotlight The 'mighty figure' was a two-time Commonwealth Champion and world-record holder
-
Israel attacks Iran: a 'limited' retaliationTalking Point Iran's humiliated leaders must decide how to respond to Netanyahu's measured strike
