Bulletproof Backpack Makers, Retailers Slam New York Confiscation Legislation

A New York bill aimed at confiscating body armor would also force parents to hand over safety products designed for school shootings. 

Democrat assemblymember Jonathan G. Jacobson wants to make New York the first state to outlaw bulletproof vests, but his far-reaching legislation would also end up seizing protective backpacks from students and parents. Two bulletproof backpack makers and one local retailer said the bill damages an industry created to protect children from school shootings. 

Gabi Siboni, director of the Israeli company ArmorMe, estimates that tens of thousands of New Yorkers have purchased bulletproof products in recent years due to the rise in campus violence and high-profile mass shootings. Those self-defense products could now render them criminals.

"I think that this is not related to the product; it's related to the political situation," said Siboni, a retired Israel Defense Forces colonel who began making the bulletproof knapsacks in 2012. "It's a progressive thing, banning anything that is related to protecting from gunshots or from pistols."  

New York law already makes it a crime to use body armor while committing a gun crime. Jacobson's bill would make it illegal to possess any "bullet-resistant soft body armor" that is rated to stop shots from at least a .38 caliber handgun. Most bulletproof backpacks on the market are rated to stop far more powerful rounds. If passed, the bill would force parents who purchased bulletproof backpacks for their children to turn the protective devices in to the authorities.