In response to the Columbine shootings in 1999 as well as the recent attack at Virginia Tech, two dads came up with an “interesting” solution to protect their own kids and are now marketing it to others — the bulletproof backpack:

“It was after seeing what happened in Columbine that we started thinking about this. I’m a parent and so is [co-owner] Joe [Curran] and we wanted a way of keeping kids safe at school and this is what we came up with,” said [Mike] Pelonzi, co-owner of MJ Safety Solutions which produces ‘My Child’s Pack’.

The backpacks, which will cost $175, have a super-lightweight bullet-proof plate sewn into the back which weighs no more than a bottle of water. Pelonzi said the material used is a secret.

The plate material meets National Institute of Justice safety standards, said Pelonzi, and during a three-year testing phase, stood up to bullets as well as machete, hatchet and Ka-bar knife attacks.

Good to know my kids will be safe from the all-to-often hatchet attack. Doesn’t this seem, I don’t know, a bit overboard? While school shootings are widely publicized when they happen, they are still a rare phenomenon. Why not send your kid to school with bear repellent, too, since they have as much chance of being attacked by a grizzly? What’s next, Abercrombie & Fitch full body armor? This takes helicopter parenting to a whole new level.

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