SARASOTA – People are shopping for backpacks and school supplies, and some are also shopping for defensive to protect students.
“What’s interesting about the orders,” Robert Vito said. “Is that it’s from parents and grandparents, and they’re ordering 5,6,7 at a time.”
And sales for Unequal’s “SafeShield” keep going up.
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“It’s designed to stop ballistics, such as a 44 magnum, and a 357 sig, as well as a shotgun blast from steel, lead rounds, as well as a buck or even a slug, and stab. So if someone tried to stab you, it would not be able to be penetrated.”
CEO Robert Vito says Unequal was making bulletproof vests for law enforcement agencies like the LAPD when he saw the news of the shooting at Parkland.
“Sadly school attacks has become the new normal,” Vito said. “And the principal at my daughter’s school asked me to design a backpack protection, that the students could put into their backpack, be concealed, innocuous and could be there in the event there was an intruder.”
So they started testing the safe shield,
“It’s a quarter inch thin,” Vito said. “It’s the size of a notepad, and yet it weighs less than two cans of soda, so it’s about 20 ounces.”
Taking up little room in the backpack and making it easy to carry.
“So it’s like the spare tire in the trunk of your car,” Vito said. “It’s only there if you need it, but in the event of an attack, you can hold it to your face, put it on your back…”
“We’re trying to provide a defense, not an offense,” Vito said. “But a defense to a would be intruder.”
And it’s easy to teach children to use, Vito’s taught his daughters in 2nd and 8th grade.
“I had a parent ask me,” Vito said. “Is this ruining a child’s innocence, and I said when my daughter came home from kindergarten and was discussing stranger danger with me about someone potentially grabbing her and putting her in a car, I think Innocent was lost at that point.”
The Shield is $150 dollars with discounts for groups and schools.
By Samantha Sonner – August 3, 2018
snntv.com
