Armoured backpack sales soar after Newtown school shootings

Sales of bulletproof backpacks have soared in America in the wake of the latest school shooting as anxious parents seek drastic measures to protect their children. Firearms enthusiasts have also caused sales of assault weapons to spike in anticipation of tighter gun control.

The unusual increase in sales for armoured backpacks designed to shield children caught in shootings were noticed by three companies that produce them.

After the Connecticut shooting, Ken Larson and his wife have decided to buy their son an armoured backpack  - even though the one-year-old won't be in school for a few more years."My son's life is invaluable," said Mr Larson, 41, of Salt Lake City, Utah. "If I can get him a backpack for 200 dollars (£123) that makes him safer, I don't even have to think about that."

The armour inserts fit into the back panel of a child's backpack. It is designed to stop bullets from handguns, not assault weapons like the one used in Friday's shooting where Adam Lanza, 20, entered a school in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 26 people, including 20 children who were just six and seven years old.

He first shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, at home and finally killed himself at the school as police closed in.

The manufacturers and some parents say that while the backpacks don't guarantee children won't be killed, they could be useful as shields.

Some experts, however, say sending children to school in armoured backpacks is not a healthy response to fear. Anne Marie Albano, psychiatry director at Columbia University's Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders, said parents should convey calmness, not anxiety.

"This is not serving to keep children safe," she said. "This is serving to increase their fear and their suspicion of their peers."

At the Amendment II store in Salt Lake City, sales of children's backpacks and armoured inserts have increased, with 200 purchase requests yesterday alone.

Kerry Clark, president of Texas-based Backpackshield.com, began making the backpacks after the deadly mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007. Seung-Hui Cho was a student of the university when he killed 32 people and then himself.

Mr Clark said he sold 15 backpacks yesterday. Before Friday's shooting, he said, the company would sometimes go an entire month and just sell one.

"It's the busiest I've seen it in my life," he said.

Meanwhile, firearms enthusiasts across the US are stocking up on semi-automatic rifles in anticipation of tighter gun control measures as President Barack Obama demands "real action, right now".

A spike in gun sales is common after a mass shooting, but the latest rampage has generated record sales in some states, particularly of assault weapons similar to the AR-15 rifle the gunman used on Friday to carry out his slaughter.

Colorado set a single-day record for gun background check requests the day after the shootings, while Nevada saw more checks in the two days that followed than any other weekend this year.

Records were also set in other American states, including Tennessee, California and Virginia.

Some gun shop owners stopped selling the remaining stock of their assault weapons, anticipating only more interest and value after Mr Obama yesterday instructed his administration to create concrete proposals to reduce gun violence that he could give to Congress by January.

Robert Akers, a South Dakota gun seller who specialises in military-style weapons, said the rush of customers had transformed his Rapid Fire Firearms store into a "madhouse" and that he's not actively selling the guns and has turned off his phone.

"The price is only going to go up higher," he said.

Austin Cook, general manager of Hoover Tactical Firearms in Alabama, said the spike in sales has been so intense that federal background checks that typically take five minutes or less are now taking up to an hour.

Mr Cook said about 50 people were waiting in line for his store to open the morning after the shootings, and that he's since sold nearly all of his assault weapons.

Dick's Sporting Goods has said it was suspending sales of modern rifles nationwide because of the shooting.