School shopping season comes around every year. Commercials with kids looking way overly excited, stacks of notebooks, bags of pencils, lunch boxes filled with snacks and every other thing that one might find themselves impulse buying at Target. There is, however, a new item ending up in the carts of 200 percent more Americans than last year: bulletproof backpacks.

Most can agree that school shootings are a problem in America. According to a 2018 CNN report, there have been 288 mass shootings in the United States since 2009, and the only other countries that have come even close to that number are Canada and France.

While these bags may help protect students and their loved ones, they do not protect their wallets. An average school backpack costs about $30, but a bulletproof bag costs more than six times that amount. A leading brand of bulletproof backpack, ArmorMe, has bags that cost up to $190.

“Our bags are of excellent quality, and they hide bullet proof panels inside,” said Gabi Siboni, a colonel in the Israel Defense Forces Reserve service and one of the creators of the backpacks. “We comply with the USA Standard IIIA, which will stop 9-millimeter and .44 magnum  bullets.”

The USA Standard IIIA can protect against an AK-47 (the gun used in the El Paso shooting) and an AR-15. The price tag, however, leaves many wondering if the backpacks are worth it.

“They’re producing a product that’s purpose is to protect students but are pricing the product where some students aren’t able to afford it,”  junior Hollis Mitchell said. “So, they’re only protecting students who can afford it.”

Some students, such as sophomore Ruby Borden, are more concerned with the ability of bulletproof backpacks to actually protect students in the case of a school shooter.

“I don’t think [the backpacks are] needed,” Borden said. “In the case of a school shooter, for instance, it will only cover a small section of your back, and that is assuming that they are shooting at your back.”

Mitchell agrees and also believes that the debate over bulletproof backpacks distracts from the real issue at hand.

“I think it’s better to address school shootings as the problem and stop that [rather] than bulletproof backpacks,” Mitchell said.
“Address the source of the problem.”

Siboni confirmed that he has seen a rise in ArmorMe sales with the mass shooting in America. In fact, bulletproof backpack sales have risen between 100 to 300 percent since the recent mass shootings.

“Unfortunately, in our world today, we have to consider [these backpacks],” Borden said. “But, I think spending that much money, for something that only has a small likelihood of helping, is a waste.”