• ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    War is a racket, even if it’s against your own people. Gun culture and the shootings epidemic, and the subsequent industries that have sprung up as a result like this one, are massively profitable for a small group of people who either work in government or have it financially by the balls via “lobbying” (bribery), and they will always prioritise that profit over your life (or the lives of innocent children, for that matter). Every, single, time.

  • PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 months ago

    This is cynically capitalist and just theater anyway. Any plates that reasonably approximate NIJ III+ would be prohibitively heavy for children to carry throughout the day, if they actually wore them at all. The whiteboard/shield combo is my favorite one here: almost reasonable!

    • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      First: There is no current NIJ specification for III+. It’s either IIIa, III, or IV. III+ is a marketing gimmick for plate that stop all level III threats, but don’t stop all level IV threats.

      Second: I guess that depends on what you count as ‘prohibitively heavy’. UHMW plates that are listed as III+ by the manufacturer (again, there is not NIJ specification for this) can be in the 5# range per plate for a small. My backpack in middle school was easily 25# since I never used my locker, so ???.

  • ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    I’ve considered getting a bulletproof jacket or hoodie. But it’s so expensive, and can only really be worn half the year.

    The stuff like backpack inserts seems like a racket. How likely are you to be wearing the backpack and get shot from behind?

    • zaph@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      How likely are you to be wearing the backpack and get shot from behind?

      Not trying to say it’s not a racket but the backpack could easily be used to provide cover in all sorts of situations. It’s not like it can only be handled on your back, you can flip it around, hold it over your head, get down in the fetal position and hope it covers you enough to keep little johnny from shredding you with daddy’s ar. Pretty versatile actually.

      • PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 months ago

        One of the graphics showed just that. And it might work if the attacker decides not to walk four feet left/right to get a new angle.

        • pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 months ago

          I mean, if I were a school shooter, I doubt I’d realize you didn’t actually get hit, I’d probably be looking for new targets

          • PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            2 months ago

            I guess it’s really down the the mindset of the attacker. Going for a high body count for internet clout would cause that. Beef with a specific class for percieved wrongs, probably not.

  • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    This is one of those things that, compared against the number of students in schools in the US, is so vanishingly rare that it’s not even worth worrying about on an individual basis. The 230 school shootings in a decade–23 per year–is divided among roughly 129,000 schools. The odds that any given school will experience a shooting in a given year is about .017%. Spending huge amounts of money on it, rather than things that actually make a real difference (like, say, qualified psychologist working as school counselors) is asinine.

    Do I have body armor? Yup. Do I use it all the time? Nope. The only reason I have it is for division rules; I do armored competition division for PCSL, along with other gun run and brutality type events, so I gotta have it to make division rules. There’s no way in hell I’d wear the shit on the daily unless I was in an active war zone.