Body Armor Inserts for Backpacks

Body armor inserts for backpacks and briefcases are something you might be interested in for yourself or for your kids when they go to school. This is one option for active shooter response and one way for the average person to be better prepared to defend themselves. Obviously children can’t carry guns to school, but they can protect themselves by using body armor.

Premier Body Armor

Premier Body Armor was designed in exactly the same way and using exactly the same materials that normal ballistic soft body armor is manufactured for law enforcement officers. Premier does primarily work for law enforcement officers.

Premier wanted to help private citizens who are not in the law enforcement community be prepared to deal with active shooters and other miscreants. In fact this has been a controversial issue: Should body armor be sold to private citizens? Obviously bad guys can buy it too.

But the impetus came from law enforcement officers, who asked Premier Body Armor to make ballistic panels that their children could place in their school bags and backpacks for personal security when going to school.

Ballistic Panels

The panel provided for PDN’s testing is a small panel that fits in a standard backpack. It’s NIJ tested, which is the standard for ballistic protection in the United States, and it’s a Level IIIA. The panel is meant to be worn up against the body, not free floating inside the backpack. The wearer can move the backpack to the front of their body if warranted, or leave it on their back if fleeing from a threat.

Ballistic Testing

To see if this panel will actually stop a bullet and is worth considering as one of your self-defense tools, we conducted ballistic testing with gelatin blocks. A backpack with the panel inserted was strapped against a gelatin block and a 9mm JHP +P round fired into it from 21 feet away.

The results? The bullet was completely contained within the Premier Body Armor panel. It stopped the round. Ballistic backpack panels are TSA approved and legal in all 50 states.