Can I Buy a Bulletproof Vest?
Can you buy a bulletproof vest? Yes! As long as you live in the US and haven’t been convicted of a violent felony, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” Any resident of the United States can buy a bulletproof vest, regardless of your occupation or citizenship. You don’t have to be a police officer or armored car driver, and you don’t even need to be a US citizen (any US resident can buy one) - the only qualifications you need are a felony-free record and an interest in protecting yourself!
Bulletproof vests and other pieces of body armor are just safety equipment; no one’s ever been harmed by a bulletproof vest. Because of that, there aren’t a bunch of bureaucratic restrictions on purchasing them. Except for a few very specific cases, anyone can purchase a bulletproof vest either in person at a store or online, and then they can wear it wherever they want to. You can find a guide to the laws about body armor in each state using BulletSafe's guide to body armor law by state here, although they are mostly pretty uniform throughout the whole country.
There are only a few exceptions to this freedom to purchase a bulletproof vest. The James Guelff and Chris McCurley Body Armor Act of 2002 states that no person convicted of a violent crime may purchase, own or possess body armor. So, if you have been convicted of a violent felony, you aren’t allowed to buy a bulletproof vest. But if you haven’t, there is no reason why you can’t buy or own one. It is up to the buyer to determine whether or not they are legally allowed to buy a bulletproof vest; if a felon comes into possession of a bulletproof vest, the responsibility does not fall on the person who sold the vest. For this reason, there is no background check, waiting period, or registration necessary in order to buy a bulletproof vest, so an ordinary civilian can buy one hassle-free.
The other small exception is that in the state of Connecticut, all bulletproof vests must be purchased in person, face-to-face in a retail store. You are not allowed to order bulletproof vests online if you live in Connecticut, and so unfortunately we cannot fulfill online orders or ship to that state. Rest assured, you are still totally free to buy and own a bulletproof vest, you’ll just need to go to the store to purchase it. You can find an authorized BulletSafe dealer near you using our store locator.
You are also free to wear your bulletproof vest wherever you want to, with very limited exceptions. You can wear your vest to the shooting range if you’re worried that you might be standing next to an inexperienced shooter; you can wear it to work if you have a job like a bounty hunter or a repo man where you’re worried you might encounter violent individuals; you can keep one under your bed in case of a home invasion or in your emergency bunker in case of a major catastrophe; you can even wear one day-to-day in any and all situations where you’re concerned about your personal safety.
The only exception to this is that you can’t wear your bulletproof vest into an airport or on an airplane. You can put it in your checked baggage, but you can’t wear it on your person when you fly. You should also exercise caution if you’re considering traveling internationally with a bulletproof vest. Different countries have different laws regarding body armor, and you should find out what those laws are before you get ready to head to the airport. You definitely will not be able to travel internationally with the ballistic plates we sell for upgrading your vest’s protection level; whether you can travel with the vest itself or not will depend on what country you’re flying to, and you’ll need to look their laws up ahead of time.
As you can see, anyone is free to own a bulletproof vest, as long as you haven’t been convicted of a violent felony. And now, thanks to the BulletSafe bulletproof vest’s super-affordable price tag of $299, personal protection is truly available to anyone for the first time. To celebrate your freedom to buy and own body armor, you can use the coupon code “ANYONE” at checkout to receive free shipping on your order from BulletSafe.com.