Calls To Regulate Body Armor

BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 10 months ago

NPR.

When an 18-year-old man stepped into a Buffalo grocery store last Saturday with an AR-15-style rifle, the store’s security guard tried to stop the shooting by firing his own weapon back at the shooter.

But the security guard’s fire was stopped by the shooter’s body armor, authorities say. Then, the shooter shot and killed the guard, Aaron Salter.

“The security guard that was killed was a retired Buffalo police lieutenant. [He] engaged the shooter, who was wearing tactical gear and body armor. [He] did shoot and hit the suspect, but it did not penetrate the body armor,” said Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in an interview with NPR.

The Buffalo shooter’s decision to wear body armor makes him the latest mass shooter in recent years to do so, following high-profile cases in Colorado, Texas and California.

In the U.S., body armor is subject to far fewer restrictions nationwide than guns. Its use in mass shootings has ticked up in recent years, experts say, raising questions about the equipment’s accessibility and fears about the deadliness of such shootings, if police are unable to use deadly force to stop them.

The only purchase limitation in most of the U.S. is a federal ban on possession of body armor by people convicted of violent felonies. Connecticut restricts body armor sales further by requiring sales to be face-to-face transactions.

In a sharp contrast with firearms, no states require background checks, permits or registration.

Some retailers decline to sell to civilians. But others sell products to anyone who will purchase it.

Cheap vests run from about $200 to $300. At the highest end, body armor and ceramic plates can be very expensive, as much as thousands of dollars for a complete set.

You expected it to happen, yes?  Tell me you knew this was coming.  Breathless panic and outrage.  There is all goes again – calls among the offended to regulate body armor.

Body armor could be nothing more than a steel plate worn with a rope around your neck, and you have as much right to own it as anyone else.

Even if the only use it ever actually gets is family drills when the father sends his wife and children into a closet with a shotgun while he confronts an intruder, that’s good enough and the potential for a home invasion justifies its ownership and use.


Comments

  1. On May 20, 2022 at 11:51 pm, Chris said:

    Well of Course.

    And DoD wants to destroy Russia.
    Pleeeeease.
    Game OVER, for even being Considered.

    https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/05/19/soldiers-facing-discrimination-state-laws-could-request-transfers-under-draft-army-policy.html

  2. On May 21, 2022 at 6:37 am, Wes said:

    In the funny/not-funny category. When this happened I immediately thought plates would get locked up like anti-histamines. Literally first thing.

    Head-shots kids.

  3. On May 21, 2022 at 8:36 am, Longbow said:

    … and Lynching are caused by the easy avialability of rope! There is just to much rope out there on the streets, and it is just too easy to get!

    We MUST have a National Licensing system and a sensible waiting period to buy rope. I mean, seriously, why do you NEED a length of rope over ten feet long anyway?

    End Rope Violence now!

  4. On May 21, 2022 at 9:50 am, Ned said:

    Good to train shooting at the pelvic area. Lots of blood flow and a pelvic bone to break. Easier to hit than the head.

  5. On May 21, 2022 at 9:56 am, HouseWolf said:

    Hips and heads. Train like you fight.

  6. On May 21, 2022 at 11:54 am, Mack said:

    Say,

    let’s ban helmets.

    C’mon Man!

  7. On May 21, 2022 at 5:17 pm, JB said:

    Oh my. A consumer product was used in the commission of a crime and now the product must be regulated, registered, or banned.

    Hammers kill more than guns so lets ban them. Or ban medicines used in suicide. Or cars. Or lathes, electricity, gasoline, water, power tools, and law mowers.

    THE COMMUNISTS can ban civilian body armor in a heartbeat and will have plenty of help from the RINOS. Since body armor is not protected in the constition they will define them in some manner as a tool to facilitate crime like burglery tools.

    Wake up America. The Communists are attacking our liberties on 360 degress 24 hours a day. They commit false flag attacks against us to sway public opinion. They control the media and publish lies and disinformation to achieve their goal. They use ever tool at hand to control us, brainwash us, censor us, fine us, and charge us with crimes that do not exist. Yet we tolerate their tyranny. We we accept it. We look the other way.

    At what point do Americans say no more ?

  8. On May 21, 2022 at 6:13 pm, X said:

    Of course they want to ban body armor. The government wants the ability to to kill you at any time without any resistance.

  9. On May 24, 2022 at 4:46 am, Susan D Harms said:

    people act like this was a surprise. he was not the first. recall the bank robbery in CA prob. 20 years ago, the police were TOTALLY outgunned and the perps had on body armor.

    This is not new.

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This article is filed under the category(s) Body Armor and was published May 20th, 2022 by Herschel Smith.

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