In Stylish Colors for Boys and Girls

Posted: April 26, 2013 | Author: BB | Filed under: Disgust |Leave a comment

Now that our supposedly moderate senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander have so plainly shown their unbridled worship of the firearms lobby, we have to leave it to the Brits to take notice of just how warped U.S. gun culture has become. And so it is that The Guardian reports today on the latest fad in U.S. education: bulletproof school uniforms! Genius!

Actually we’re not likely to see mandatory bulletproof school uniforms anytime soon because it turns out they are a wee bit on the pricey side. But it is lovely to know that if you’ve got a thousand dollars to spare you can buy junior a kids ballistic puffer vest, which not only provides NIJ Level II ballistic protection (whatever the hell that means), but also comes in six “stylish colors for boys and girls” including fuchsia! There’s also a kids ballistic t-shirt for a cool $755 (white only, alas).

The head of the company that makes and sells this stuff, one AJ Zabadne, is quoted in the Guardian story describing his products as nothing more than a routine precaution: “It’s like you find life jackets on ships or planes in case they go down. It’s no different to having a seatbelt in a car.”

Yes, quite right, small children wearing thousand-dollar body armor garments to elementary school … the moral equivalent of a seat belt. Good lord.

A version of this post appears on the Nashville Scene‘s Pith in the Wind blog.

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