There’s something extremely conspicuous about a man walking around in public wearing a full tactical vest over his business casual dress code. Usually, a person wearing something like this out in the open is either private security or a mass shooter. It’s highly likely that the average citizen concerned about his own personal safety doesn’t want to draw the attention of everyone in the room when he just wants to go about his business. 

Knowing this, people who want to buy a bulletproof vest and use it prefer if they could wear it in public, and the only way to do so without getting funny looks would be to conceal it. Now, it’s important to know that not all kinds of armor can be concealed. One cannot simply throw on a poncho over an IOTV like Clint Eastwood and go to a mall.

Armor carrying heavy Level IV ballistic plates cannot typically be concealed. Tactical vests and plate carriers are typically meant to be worn over the body, which is why they have MOLLE webbing for external attachments like first aid kits, magazine pouches, and other gear. 

For everyday wear that doesn’t make people call 911 on you, consider a IIIA vest. Worn under baggy clothing like dress shirts, sports coats, or Hawaiian shirts, IIIA vests are light, foldable, and resistant to most pistol caliber rounds up to and including the powerful .44 magnum. 

In the military world, Level IIIA vests in the form of the PASGT system were used by ordinary infantrymen from the Invasion of Grenada in 1983 all the way up to the first years of the Global War on Terror. Meant to stop shrapnel from grenades, Level IIIA armor is also worn by vehicle crews, who can be hurt by fragments of metal that fly off the interior walls of a vehicle when it takes enemy fire. 

Level IIIA vests are also worn by Secret Service agents under their suits, as well as police and SWAT teams, who value the vest for its light weight and flexibility. These qualities make it great for everyday wear, as opposed to the modern Level III and IV plates which are stronger but rigid. 

Even if Level IIIA armor is lighter and softer, it still adds some bulk to your body, so you won’t be able to show off your figure anymore. T-shirts are to be worn under the body to prevent direct contact with your skin, as exposure to moisture like your sweat can degrade the ballistic fibers over time. 

The vest itself should never be “low cut” like a tank top. It should always protect everything between your collar bone and your navel. If you’re a person with a little bit of extra love around your waistline, this doesn’t change. Even if you have extra fat dangling under your vest, it truly does not matter. Your vest is meant to protect your vitals like your heart and your lungs, not your love handles. 

As a general rule, buy your bulletproof vest in the same size as you would your regular clothing. Any clothing meant to be worn over it should be one size larger, or otherwise clothing that’s loose like a hoodie. Here, fat people have an advantage because they already look large, and any added bulk won’t be as noticeable as it would be on a person with a skinny frame. 

BulletSafe offers its VP3 – an NIJ certified Level IIIA soft armor vest – in all sizes from extra small to 4XL, ensuring that it’ll fit on people of all shapes and sizes. With its adjustable straps, breathable material, and $299.99 price tag the VP3 vest is quite possibly the most practical and affordable vest on the market today. There is no reason to pay more for the same level of protection, which is why you should consider BulletSafe for your personal protection needs. 

In 2019, the DusitD2 complex in Nairobi, Kenya was rocked by a violent explosion. Witnesses reported seeing human limbs flying through the air as gunfire erupted from other areas within the complex. Terrorists from the Al-Shabaab militant group began firing into crowds at random.

Retired SAS operator Christian Craighead, who was in the country training Kenyan counter-terrorist units, was on break at the time. Craighead heard the gunfire erupt and rushed to his vehicle, where he retrieved his kit, consisting of his Canadian C2 rifle, a sidearm, and his plate carrier. After spending mere seconds gearing up, he ran towards the sound of gunfire. With the help of local police forces, the attackers were subdued. Craighead became a legend in the firearms community almost overnight.

If you are reading this from the United States, the likelihood of you being involved in a mass shooting is substantially higher than it would be in Kenya. While it would generally not be a good idea to storm into a building to subdue a shooter (first responders might mistake you for the bad guy), it would be a good idea to add a plate carrier to your vehicle EDC kit.

Jacob Albarado, the hero of the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde, famously had to borrow his barber’s shotgun and helped with the evacuation but did not go into the school because of his lack of gear.

“At one point, I was there at the door fixing to go in, but once again I didn't have any of my gear. It wouldn't have been a smart move for me. All those guys had their gear and stuff so like I said, I pulled back."

To be fair to Albarado, this wasn’t cowardice at all. Through no fault of his own, he found himself unprepared. Realistically, who imagines they’ll ever be in a situation where they need to fight for their lives or the lives of their loved ones? However, in the crazy, dangerous world we live in, it’s becoming more and more likely, and it’s important to be prepared.

You never know when the next riot, natural disaster, terrorist attack, mass shooting, or other life-threatening circumstance might happen, so if you choose to throw a vest in your back seat, know that it may be there for a very long time. For long-term storage, soft armor vests are not the best. Prolonged exposure to humidity and ultraviolet light can cause degradation over the long run, so when it comes to vehicle storage, Level III or IV plates are the better option.

BulletSafe’s Level IV ballistic plates area made of durable alumina-oxide ceramic, which does not degrade over time like its soft armor counterpart. In addition, Level IV plates are stronger than soft armor, capable of defeating rifle fire from AR-15s and AK-47s as well as a single .30-06 round.

While we hope the worst case scenarios never come to pass, a bulletproof vest in the car would be beneficial in several scenarios, such as:

Working High-Risk Jobs. Armed security personnel and asset protection units put their lives on the line every day. It would be good for company vehicles to have vests in the back seat in case of worst case scenarios or if visitors might need them.

Living in High-Crime Areas. If you live in a particularly bad area known for frequent gang wars and fall asleep to the sound of gunshots every weekend, it might be a good idea to put a vest in your car. Depending on how bad the crime is where you live, you might even want to consider mounting it on the back of your seat. Mounts like the vehicle seat back plate carrier hanger from Grey Man Tactical work perfectly for this.

Active Shooter Situations. As previously mentioned, active shooters are becoming more common in the United States. You don’t want to compromise on your safety, and a Level IV vest is an incredible asset whether you’re escaping from a shooting or if you’re going in to help others.

Natural Disasters. In the aftermath of a natural disaster such as a hurricane or earthquake, there may be an increased risk of looting and violence. Carrying a bulletproof vest in your car can help protect you in case of an attack during these chaotic situations.

Traditional plate carriers, unlike soft vests, are usually equipped with MOLLE webbing. This means that aside from serving as armor, vehicle plate carriers can also serve as light “bug out survival vests.”

Aside from ammo, your vest can also carry an individual first aid kit, a fire starter, and probably a small pouch where you can keep an esbit stove and a life straw. This kit should serve as something that can keep you alive if you happen to run out of gas in the middle of Notown, USA and you need to get help, but you shouldn’t have so much gear that you’ll be over-encumbered.

It's important to note that carrying a bulletproof vest is not a guarantee of safety and should be done in conjunction with other safety measures such as avoiding dangerous situations, being aware of your surroundings, and calling law enforcement if you feel threatened.

Though violent crimes have steadily been declining in recent years, it's hard to turn on the news these days without hearing a report about another criminal using force to impose their will on others. While encountering an attacker is rare, situations and circumstances can change in an instant, and many have decided to take protection into their own hands.

For the everyday commuter, the BulletSafe bulletproof backpack panel is the size of a 10x14 inch notebook and at 17 ounces, weighs just as much. Deceptively soft and pliable, this lightweight bulletproof panel is NIJ Certified to Level IIIA, making it capable of stopping a wide variety of handgun calibers up to and including the legendary .44 magnum.

Statistically, the handgun was the most used firearm in crimes across the United States.

In a 2021 study conducted by the FBI, 62% of the total firearms used in crimes were handguns, while 3.6% were rifles, and another 3.6% were automatic weapons/machine guns.

A separate 2021 study by the Office of the Attorney General revealed that the 9mm has been the caliber of choice for criminals since the late 1990s due to its abundance and low cost. Out of the sample of firearms used in crimes which were examined by the Bureau of Forensic Services for the study, 90.3% were handguns, and 46 of those were chambered in 9mm, with the second most common caliber being the .40 Smith and Wesson. Thankfully, a Level IIIA plate like the BulletSafe bulletproof backpack panel is more than capable of defeating a 9mm even in close quarters.

Another advantage of buying a $99.97 bulletproof backpack panel is cost. Other companies might charge as much as $899 for a complete backpack system, but an insert, especially one as light at the BulletSafe bulletproof backpack panel, can be placed in the laptop panel of any conventional backpack without any need for modification.

As the old adage goes, it is better to have and not need than to need and not have. Investing in a BulletSafe bulletproof backpack panel is also an investment in your peace of mind.

When people think of “Kevlar” most imagine a vest – any vest – that stops bullets. Many assume that the modern American warfighter still wears Kevlar vests just like his predecessors in the 1990s. In fact, the Kevlar Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops (PASGT) and modern plate carrier have little in common with each other.

For starters, Kevlar is actually a registered trademark of the Dupont company, who originally used the lightweight but highly durable material as a replacement for steel in racing tires. Kevlar itself is a blend of a tough but light material called aramid that is unique to Dupont. Other companies produce aramid fibers and armor but cannot legally use the Kevlar brand name.

In contrast, the armored ceramic plates are made of various materials such as steel, ceramics, or most commonly, ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene also known as UHMWPE. While hard armor plates can be made of Kevlar, UHMWPE provides some advantages Kevlar lacks.

When the United States military first started issuing Kevlar body armor en masse to its troops, it came in the form of the PASGT system in the 1990s. This revolutionary body system replaced the aging flak jacket used in the Vietnam War, which relied on ballistic nylon and was never meant to survive a direct impact from even small pistol calibers. The PASGT system, on the other hand, was built with lightweight, flexible Kevlar. The new armor could stop 9mm rounds but would only slow down a round if hit by a larger rifle bullet, which would still penetrate.

Despite the fact it could defeat 9mm, the PASGT was meant to only protect against fragmentation threats. For rifle rounds, the Army needed something sturdier. Beginning in 1998, full production of a new, exciting vest came underway. The Interceptor Body Armor was made of Kevlar aramid fibers while protected from the front and back by solid plates. This new type of armor could take on direct hits from 7.62x39mm rounds and survive. This isn’t to say that the UHMWPE is the end-all be all in terms of personal armor, but it comes close.

STRENGTH

Bulletproof materials require immense strength, and tensile strength measured in pascals determines how much stress a material can take before it breaks under tension. While Kevlar is quite sturdy with its tensile strength of 3,620 megapascals (compared to the 400 megapascals of structural steel), it pales in comparison to UHMWPE, which has a tensile strength so high it can stretch from 4 to 10 gigapascals, making it the world’s strongest fiber.

Winner: UHMWPE

DURABILITY

Aramid fibers like those in a Kevlar vest decay faster than UHMWPE and are degraded by UV light. A Kevlar vest will usually begin to show signs of degradation after five years, after which time it would no longer be wise – or safe – to trust one’s life to the vest, while UHMWPE fibers in armor tend to persist for far longer, thanks to their unique molecular structure, which makes them resistant to water, moisture, chemicals, ultraviolet radiation and microorganisms.

Winner: UHMWPE

TEMPERATURE

When operating in a warm environment, UHMWPE’s light weight and high heat resistance make it a primary candidate for service in deserts and prairies. In contrast, aramid vests are excellent at retaining heat, which makes them more suitable for cold weather operations.

Winner: Varies

MOISTURE RETENTION

UHMWPE is waterproof, and unlike steel or any other metal, will not rust or corrode. This unique property is highly valued among both the Navy SEALs and shark divers, who use UHMWPE as part of their armor. Certain companies sell shark-proof wetsuits with UHMWPE sewn in with the nylon, while SEALs regularly utilize UHMWPE plate carriers during UDT operations. Aramid, on the other hand, can take on water. Wearing a bulletproof vest in a wet or humid environment can result in an aramid vest taking on as much as 3.5% of its own weight in water.

Winner: UHMWPE

If someone wants something with a combination of the benefits of both fibers, they should look into BulletSafe vests. BulletSafe offers bulletproof vests made of a blend of Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene with a blend of aramid fibers, giving users a wide array of options from bulletproof backpacks to soft armor and hard plates. BulletSafe vests are NIJ certified, and the company is committed to providing affordable quality bulletproof products to any and all protection-minded individuals.

Exactly how dangerous is America? As of this writing there have been 77 mass shootings in 2023 alone and 5,212 since 2013. According to the firearms statistics website everystat, an average of 15,343 people are killed by firearm homicide every year. Those numbers seem excessively high, but it’s hard to get a sense of just how high they are.

US murder-homicide rates have skyrocketed in recent years (data from the World Bank)

In the top 5 most dangerous cities in the United States, the homicide rates are so bad that they’re comparable to the casualties suffered in some wars. To clarify: a war is a series of battles fought over a long period of time, usually several years. To have more deaths in a single city in peacetime truly says something about the quality of life there and city hall’s crime policies.

Chicago

695 people were killed in Chicago in 2022, giving the city some of the highest homicide numbers in the United States. The murders are concentrated around the Englewood and West Chicago areas, with some shootings occurring near downtown tourist hot spots. The city is so violent that it’s earned the dark moniker “Chiraq.” Ironically, there were more dead Chicagoans in 2022 than dead Iraqis in 2021.

When the Russians invaded South Ossetia in 2008, conservative casualty estimates place the combined number of dead on both the Russian and Georgian sides at 659, including the casualties suffered by the various mercenaries and foreign volunteers who took up arms for either side.

Philadelphia

The City of Brotherly Love is ironically one of the most dangerous cities in America, with 516 homicides in 2022. According to a report by the New York Times, 1,400 people had been shot by August of 2022, which is odd for a city which is trying its best to regulate its citizen’s guns. Violence is usually concentrated in North and West Philadelphia, so a lot of the city is safe for tourists, and local ride-shares will usually be knowledgeable enough to tell you which places are no-go zones. However, the gas stations and 7-11s throughout the city that are frequent targets of carjackings and muggings make it almost mandatory to carry a weapon for self-defense.

Philadelphia’s high homicide count is comparable to the total casualties suffered during the world’s shortest war: the Anglo-Zanzibar War. In 1896, the tiny Zanzibar Sultanate dared to stand up to the Royal Navy. In response, two British cruisers and three gunboats off the coast shelled until it surrendered. The entire affair lasted just 38 minutes and resulted in approximately 500 casualties.

Los Angeles

Known for its large homeless population and violent crime, the City of Angels has never quite lived up to its name. With the majority of violent crime concentrated in the city center, Los Angeles reported 382 homicides in 2022. Some, like Captain Paul Vernon of the LAPD, believe this high homicide rate is due to the political hamstringing of the police force. The popular “defund the police” movement has led to some LAPD officers afraid to do their jobs, and there has been a decreased police presence in high crime areas. The lack of badges has emboldened criminals, leading some criminals to do “walk up” shootings in the middle of broad daylight, knowing that police will be reluctant to stop them for fear of being labeled as “racist” and losing their jobs.

Meanwhile, down in Mozambique, the country’s Marxist government was challenged over the results of the 2014 general elections, in which they narrowly defeated the conservative, anti-communist RENAMO party. Conservative forces waged an on-and-off guerrilla war on the communist government. This war, which lasted from 2014 – 2019, resulting in approximately 327 casualties, less than the number of people killed in Los Angeles every year.

Detroit

The media is rife with stories about Detroit, making it out to be an urban hellhole worse than even its fictional counterpart in the Robocop movies. The city now synonymous with gun violence was once the auto manufacturing capital of the world. When production shifted overseas, the city which once had two million people now has a population of 640,000 and shrinking. Thanks to the lack of jobs and high crime rate (caused by the lack of jobs), Detroit will continue to be a city in decline until its leadership does something to crawl out of its economic crisis. 309 people were killed in Detroit 2022, mostly as a result of gang wars and violent crimes.

Compare that number to number of people killed in the entirety of the Second Afar Insurgency. This relatively unknown 28-year-long ethnic conflict lasted from 1995 until 2018 in an area the size of New Mexico. During that entire time period, battlefield casualties are estimated to be anywhere from 275 to 569 in total, miniscule compared to the combined 8,796 murdered people in Detroit during those same years.

Memphis

The Home of the Blues also happens to breed some of the toughest people in America. Shootings and murders are a regular occurrence in the city, and many children fall asleep to the soothing tones of police sirens and gunshots. The city’s old money and lack of upward mobility has been a death sentence for the large minority population struggling to pull itself out of poverty. As a result, its high crime claimed the lives of 302 people in 2022, and it shows no signs of stopping. Locals know where not to stay after sunset, and Memphis police has lowered its entry standards, no longer required college credits, military service, or previous law enforcement experience, and merely asked for two years work experience – any work experience. Memphis police has gotten so desperate that it has considered hiring officers with criminal backgrounds.

It may be hard to believe, but Memphis has suffered more deaths than the entire Ghost Dance War. This event, burned into the collective memory of the Lakota people and all Native Americans, lasted from 1890 – 1891. What started as a native religious revival erupted into violence as US troops attempted to confiscate Native weapons and land. The entire war was over in about a month, with approximately 300 natives killed.

If you live in any of these cities, it would be in your best interests to consider affordable personal protection, especially if you work in the security field. The most common round used in gun-related crime is the 9mm, and BulletSafe’s comfortable, concealable NIJ-Certified VP3 vests are available for only $299.99. Capable of defeating most handgun calibers up to .44 Magnum. It’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.