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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsVeterans create bulletproof bookcases for schools
As mass shootings continue to plague American life, whether it be inside schools or workplace, military veteran Jake Ahle said he isnt waiting around for the next mass causality.
He and Pete Facchini, both New Jersey natives, have created a line of bulletproof bookcases that can serve as a last line of defense when a mass shooter enters the premises.
The bookcase itself weighs 480 pounds, the exoskeleton is made of steel and its lined with Kevlar, Ahle told Nexstars WPIX. Hidden underneath the bottom of the steel skirt are four wheels and those wheels make it a very mobile.
If an active shooter enters the school, the bookcase can be wheeled in front of any classroom entrances. Once the bookcaseis secured and locked in place, which takes a matter of seconds, the would-be shooter would not have any access inside the room, and would only be met with a mounted mirror on the back of them.
https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/military-veterans-make-bulletproof-bookcases-to-protect-students-from-school-shootings/
WHY SHOULD THIS EVEN BE NECESSARY????
Effete Snob
(8,387 posts)So, if a shooter gains access to a school equipped with these, then the shooter can put together one heck of a fortress.
Oh, right, sure, I forgot, these are magical defensive book cases which will only protect the people we want them to, because the book cases can tell the difference.
Sigh.
roamer65
(36,744 posts)Wile E Coyote .super genius.
dalton99a
(81,404 posts)And add a gunport for the teacher to shoot out of
Rebl2
(13,470 posts)but school districts stretched as it is money wise. Doubtful they could afford it.
Effete Snob
(8,387 posts)Since the shooter will be able to take advantage of all of that fortification after gaining entry.
Rebl2
(13,470 posts)Doesnt help if the shooter gets inside
Effete Snob
(8,387 posts)The other thing that is entirely stupid about this is that elementary school children don't spend all day in classrooms.
I would bet that a good deal of people with the "try this stupid gimmick" idea don't really spend any time around elementary schools.
During the day, about a third of the children are outside on the playground, for rotating recesses depending on the size of the school.
The "single point of entry" or "bolt the door" people want to make sure that the children do not have multiple paths from the playground or athletic fields to get inside when a shooter opens fire on them. They want bottlenecks to allow maximum kills at those bottlenecks, and they want the slower kids locked out to be targets.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Things which morons like Cruz, who has been paid 1/2 million by NRA, doesn't want to think about.
CrackityJones75
(2,403 posts)They make doors that only open one way.
Sure while they are open they go both ways but they absolutely make doors that cant be opened from outside that can be opened from inside. My highschool was filled with them.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)I was thinking "one only" door to building.
And given all the damn crazy idiotic behavior of Repub. Texans, I'm still not sure.,😕
Turbineguy
(37,293 posts)Spend money on security instead.
The uneducated vote for republicans.
csziggy
(34,131 posts)Not to mention how much the books inside it would add to the weight?
Yeah, that's gonna happen.
PTWB
(4,131 posts)The wheels can be locked once rolled into place. Even 1000lbs rolls easily on wheels.
csziggy
(34,131 posts)Source, moving wheelbarrows with 500 pounds of manure in them. I have lots of experience with that.
Theres a big difference trying to pick up and roll a wheel barrow on terrain compared with simply pushing a heavy object, on wheels, across a hard, flat, and level floor.
One doesnt even have to use wheels (of course theyre more convenient and effective if theyre an option). I once moved a 2000 lb safe by myself using a pry bar, some small wooden wedges, and a few lengths of PVC pipe to act as rollers. The hard part was getting it up so that I could get the PVC underneath it. Once on the makeshift PVC rollers it was trivial to move.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,816 posts)Wheels or no wheels.
The same with bullet proof back packs. Killers don't politely wait for the kids to put their backpacks on before shooting.
PTWB
(4,131 posts)Assuming the casters are of decent quality, rolling it around would be trivial.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,816 posts)Do you suppose the hypothetical shooter would politely wait for the teacher and kids to more the bookcases and get behind them?
PTWB
(4,131 posts)I suppose I shouldnt be surprised because everyone has different life experiences, but it amazes me that folks are unaware of how easy it is to roll something heavy across a flat, hard floor.
One doesnt even have to use wheels (of course theyre more convenient if theyre an option). I once moved a 2000 lb safe by myself using a pry bar, some small wooden wedges, and a few lengths of PVC pipe to act as rollers.
All that said, I think a heavy duty door lock would be cheaper, faster, easier, and just as effective.
Effete Snob
(8,387 posts)That way the shooter can barricade inside a room full of children and make sure no one interrupts as they are shot one by one.
That's the problem with hard defensive perimeters. Once they are breached, they protect the attacker.
PTWB
(4,131 posts)Effete Snob
(8,387 posts)I do.
There is one across the street from me.
For a good part of the day, it looks like this:
Now, you and persons of your ilk want to ensure that, in the event of an active shooter, that these kids all have to go to the SINGLE entrance that is available to get inside the school. That way the shooter can be sure to kill as many as possible, since the kids won't scatter to go into the nearest one of multiple entrances.
The other way you want to help the shooter is to make sure that anyone already inside has barricaded the doors, so that the kids who are last to get into the school are locked out of the rooms as targets.
it is Wile E. Coyote thinking. People who come up with these stupid fucking ideas in order to preserve the sanctity of gunz gunz gunz, think that the shooter is going to cooperate with the stupid scheme that Mr. Coyote has devised.
Kids are not passively sitting in classrooms all day.
Yes, if something goes wrong out there, that school had better be wide open for the kids to reach safety. Why do you want to trap them?
But, no, let's spend billions of dollars to harden 87,000 elementary schools, so that everyone can have their precious guns, and some dope with a dumb idea can get rich.
Diamond_Dog
(31,917 posts)Barricade them into one bullet proof windowless room all day long! Who needs fresh air and exercise! Saves money on gym and playground equipment, too! We cant infringe on anyones 2nd amendment rights!
Effete Snob
(8,387 posts)Machine gun turrets on the monkey bars and 20 foot tall walls around every playground and ball field.
The stupid does not end with the 'sanctity of guns' defenders.
PTWB
(4,131 posts)To say you think schools should be wide open and unlocked.
lostnfound
(16,162 posts)Churches? Birthday parties? Funerals?
PTWB
(4,131 posts)One of the reasons that these school massacres have so many victims is because there are many potential victims inside a very small space.
Look at the 2017 shooting of the Republicans playing baseball outdoors and spread out. Only 6 were shot (2 critically injured) and none died.
If we can save some lives by taking the relatively trivial step of securing the doors to classrooms, why in earth would we not do that?
Would it be better to raise the age to purchase semi-automatic rifles and handguns to 25? Of course. But thats a fantasy in the current political environment.
Effete Snob
(8,387 posts)Were not going to spend a billion dollars to put Kevlar bookcases in 87,000 elementary schools.
These idiotic schemes are a rhetorical distraction from what we need to do.
PTWB
(4,131 posts)I dont think employing a simple, easy, cheap, and effective method to reducing the number of children murdered is an idiotic scheme as you put it.
You claim that talking about securing classrooms is a distraction from what we need to do without saying what you think it is we need to do.
CrackityJones75
(2,403 posts)As a parent of a 9th and 4th grader O am mot against simple effective means to provide safety should it be needed. I think people also forget that even with the needed gun legislation there will still be what like 300 million guns put there? Pass legislation but getting all of those guns off the street is a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG road.
DiamondShark
(787 posts)Will you join us on making that trip?
lostnfound
(16,162 posts)But its a fair answer.
I personally feel that the psychological environment in the US is tragically prison-like already.
Effete Snob
(8,387 posts)Is that they are designed to only be bulletproof when children are using them, and they won't provide protection for the shooter against someone coming in to neutralize the shooter.
csziggy
(34,131 posts)https://chilkibopublishing.com/the-average-weight-of-a-book/
So with a six foot tall bookcase (six feet would be shorter than a doorway) three feet wide with shelves about 9" tall, 1" thickness for each shelf plus the height of caster and the structure to support the weight on casters, the bookcase would have about 6 shelves, each could hold about 60 pounds of books for an added weight of 380 pounds.
That makes a total weight of close to 900 pounds, a little less than my estimate above of a thousand pounds.
I still believe overcoming the inertia of that weight to move the bookcase into position quickly is not practical for the average elementary school teacher and a class of kids. Unless the teacher is John Kimble in Kindergarten Cop, that is.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,816 posts)is so easy to move that 7 year olds can easily do it, don't you suppose the shooter, general a full-grown male, would find it even easier to move?
csziggy
(34,131 posts)Effete Snob
(8,387 posts)The bookcase knows who is trying to move it. So when the shooter tries to move it, it becomes immovable.
csziggy
(34,131 posts)CrackityJones75
(2,403 posts)a simple slide lock would be all that is needed to lock it into place.
I dont want these things to undermine gun regulations but I have no problem creating solutions that dont dress our schools up like army bases either.
former9thward
(31,941 posts)Phoenix61
(16,993 posts)Ive met people from all over the world and every single one thinks our gun laws are insane. They just dont understand why we keep letting people get slaughtered. All I can tell them is I dont either.
33taw
(2,436 posts)And, havent all books been banned? What would they hold? Oh, they would be empty.
bucolic_frolic
(43,060 posts)We'll be moving around in mobile bulletproof pill boxes. A bit cumbersome but at least you get home for dinner.
dalton99a
(81,404 posts)Air-conditioned Kevlar clothing for summer
CrackityJones75
(2,403 posts)sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)greenjar_01
(6,477 posts)TigressDem
(5,125 posts)There are R's who sincerely want the children to be safe and come up with these ideas.
FINE. If it saves one child from an active shooter, it will be worth it.
BUT we STILL need to get Mega Magazines banned at the very least and assault weapons if we can or at least age 21.
SO if we say, FINE, you do that and meanwhile we will also try to make sure these shooters can't get the kind of weapons that go through kevlar in about 5 rounds.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,816 posts)with actual sane gun laws.
TigressDem
(5,125 posts)But if we accept their solutions as PART of the overall problem resolution, then it is THIS AND THAT vs THIS or THAT.
At the moment until we get the sane and rational gun laws, and do all that entails to get assault weapons off the streets, we add these layers of protections for the kids.
Baitball Blogger
(46,684 posts)A panic room?
SYFROYH
(34,163 posts)And mass shootings in other contexts.
We've had the capability of mass shootings for a long time, but it's become a thing for some to do.
I know for many, the why is unimportant and they wish to restrict the means to accomplish a school mass shooting.
Kaleva
(36,259 posts)The fact that mass shootings seem routine now shows no one has been able to figure out and implement a solution
Initech
(100,041 posts)And then tell the NRA where they can go shove it!
SoonerPride
(12,286 posts)Problem solved.
Or, you know, we could just get rid of the guns.
roamer65
(36,744 posts)👍👍
Just the right mix of sarcasm and snark.
CrackityJones75
(2,403 posts)However, they are mot replacements for solid gun laws. The reality is that we are living in a time where the GOP will not allow us to protect our spaces by eliminating the threat of guns. Until that happens I want less people dying. Especially children. But it cannot be in lieu of gun legislation.
NCLefty
(3,678 posts)"Hi mom. I'm calling from inside the bookcase. Don't worry, I'm fine. The shooter will get the other kids that didn't make it but not me!"
SICK.
Paladin
(28,243 posts)Don't like that? Talk to Wayne LaPierre and Ted Cruz.
CrackityJones75
(2,403 posts)But
Hi mom I didnt have anyway to protect myself because we were waiting on gun legislation for 40 years. We are all dead
..
The argument against these measures seems to be that more kids need to die in order for pressure for gun legislation to pass. I am not ok with that at all.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)All theyre doing, really, is justifying and normalizing the gun epidemic in this country. Its like admitting the problem cant be solved, so here are ways we can live with it.
Sorry, but thats just unacceptable to me.
CrackityJones75
(2,403 posts)Frequently.
It is a fact that any gun legislation that we pass likely will not solve these issues immediately. That isnt to say we shouldnt pass them. We absolutely should. Hell I would like to have most access to lost guns removed. But none of that is likely to happen very soon. I am not willing to let safety measures slip by waiting for that legislation to happen.
Response to Jilly_in_VA (Original post)
NCLefty This message was self-deleted by its author.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)Instead of doing the most obvious and easiest thing.
Whats next digging bunkers with trap doors beneath classrooms?
Just regulate the fucking firepower.
area51
(11,896 posts)sl8
(13,678 posts)30 Likes
5,128 Views
Jul 21 2021
The ProtectED Bookcase is a simple, easy-to-use product that provides both a practical function as a bookcase and a protective function as a barrier against attack.
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