Body Armor question.

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  • ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,499
    God's Country
    The best bullet protection is the other people running around you.

    It's quite the gambling investment hoping it will be a pistol round and not a rifle round your future shooter will be using.

    Only a matter of time until co workers notice your new piece of costume and bring it up to the chain of command.

    If using the magical clip board, where would you hold it? In front of your face, center mass, or pelvic girdle?

    Do you have the balls to just stand still in front of a shooter while holding your magical clipboard or backpack? Instead of running, flailing your hands like you've just walked into a spider web? 100 percent of unarmed people wouldn't.

    If I were a teacher/work in a school environment, my time would be spent on learning to be the best room barricade specialist known to mankind. That is if you're lucky enough to have a room with doors.

    I would figure out what desks, chairs, furniture, etc... Can be lined up in a row behind the door to the wall across the room to keep the door from being pushed open. Then I would clearly lable those pieces 1,2,3,etc... On the top, indicating which piece goes first against the door, second piece behind that, etc... Ideally, the last number would be the piece closest to the far wall. The less thinking you do have to do under stress, the better.

    Active shooters like to be active. They're not going to spend much time, if any, when they encounter some physical resistance like blocked or closed entryways. They'll move on to the next available area.
    I'd have on hand a few cheap rubber door stops or invest in a few well built "tactical" door wedges.

    Good luck.



    So I was talking to my wife about this since she is a teacher and she said All of the doors at her school open Out into the hallway.
     

    photoracer

    Competition Shooter
    Oct 22, 2010
    3,318
    West Virginia
    So I was talking to my wife about this since she is a teacher and she said All of the doors at her school open Out into the hallway.

    Opening out means they can't be broken into without somehow breaking the door frame when they are closed. If they have glass in them you might be SOL unless its bullet proof.
    As for armor you don't want anything less than class 3 (not 3A which is handgun only) which can be either steel or ceramic, the later being a lot lighter (I know because I have both) and make sure its certified at that level not just classed by the maker.
     

    Techguy

    Member
    Jun 13, 2018
    32
    Glen Burnie
    That's awesome that you were able to do all of that kind of prepping and training at your school. I would like to do something like that for where I work because I'am also trained on how to use tourniquets and the basic emergency kit. But I'm just a contractor and not an actual county employee also I move around to different schools during the day.
     

    Blaster229

    God loves you, I don't.
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 14, 2010
    46,409
    Glen Burnie
    Backpack armor inserts seem like the winner. They easily slip into the laptop compartment of most backpacks. Either toss the backpack on while dipping out of there the traditional way, or wear it on your front if you think you have time to do that before choosing to confront a threat. One thing to do is to continually be aware of your surroundings inside school in a shooting context. I'll often play a game with myself walking to go print stuff or whatever where I'll pie corners to see if I can see other people walking the halls before they see me. It helps you rehearse some movement without looking like too much of a nut. As you're doing this, note what things around you provide cover vs concealment, where entrances/exits are(windows count), and alternate routes you can take if you see a threat as you pie a corner.

    An example is my gym hallway, from my gym to the main hallway, the music room is on the left and the stage is to the right. In either case, the rooms have one door close to my gym door and then another door 10 yards down or so. In the case of the stage doors, the stage opens to the cafeteria which is blocked by a curtain. There's also the parking lot door directly across from my gym door. All these options present challenges, but also alternate routes of travel for this particular stretch of hallway. If I get to the main hallway and pick up a threat down to the right, I could potentially use the stage doors-> cafeteria doors to flank around the back/side of the threat. This is my school and I know just about every inch of it. Use that to your advantage for movement.

    You can also find some things that belong in school that make good weapons. In my case, I've got a couple aluminum baseball bats near places where I typically stand/sit throughout the day. Brooms(broom handle), old crutches, a thick cane...they're all things that make handy striking weapons that don't really draw any extra attention.

    Then you've got your drills/emergency planning. I've talked over with my coworker and principal some alternatives we'd be using. For a typical lockdown, you're supposed to move students away from windows/doors, lock the doors, turn off the lights, and then go through your role call reporting procedures. In my case, I've identified two more locked doors we could put the kids behind to make them much more secure within our space. One involves scuttling them up a ladder, so it's not something we can realllllllly drill, but it would be much more safe, so I've identified it as an option for the command structure to be aware of.

    Be sure to get involved as much as possible with planning itself. I worked to form an emergency preparedness committee at my school and to get on it. I was finally able this year to get my entire staff trained on the stop-the-bleed kits we have in the building. Now our staff know how to use tourniquets/hemostatic gauze/chest seals in addition to the regular CPR/AED/Heimlich/Epipen/narcan training we always get. The next step for that line of action is to try to get at least one kit for each pod area instead of just the one kit of 3tqs/combat gauze located near the nurses office. I've personally set-up an emergency go-bag near my door with medical stuff, flashlights, some stuff for the kids(you still have to manage behavior in an emergency...especially if it's kindergarten...so things like books help), maps, and writing implements. If something happens, I can get my kids safe and provide immediate care, rather than having to run down to the office and back. We've also been able to get blinds for windows to block line of site into classrooms, and figured creative ways to lock doors without teachers needing to go outside of their rooms to do it.

    ....now if we're outside on the field and someone attacks from the parking lot/walking path....we're basically fooked. It sure would be nice if I could go through a legal process to carry at work for the safety of my kids/coworkers/self...butttttt....maryland.
    So you guys will administer these kits on the injured while the shooter is still out shooting? That's a great way to get killed. Or do you mean after he's been neutralized?
    You've never herded cats before. LOL
     

    delaneyesq

    Member
    Sep 1, 2011
    49
    For what it’s worth, this is a great site — great products and prices, and quick delivery: https://bulletsafe.com/

    I have a couple of IIIA soft armor and a couple of ceramic plates and plate carriers from them. You can add the plates to the soft armor for IV protection, or use them in the carriers to stop a 5.56 or 7.62.
     

    smokey

    2A TEACHER
    Jan 31, 2008
    31,412
    So you guys will administer these kits on the injured while the shooter is still out shooting? That's a great way to get killed. Or do you mean after he's been neutralized?
    You've never herded cats before. LOL

    Teach PE to 60 kindergartners the first week of the school year... I am verrrrry familiar with herding cats. But nahh, part of the STB training went through the standard EMS stuff dealing with looking after your own safety and doing the medical things when danger isn't immediately present....judgment calls being understood in a situational context.
     

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