
CEO Shoots Self to Test Bulletproof Jacket - duck
https://www.range365.com/ceo-shoots-self-to-test-bulletproof-jacket
======
justboxing
This is a very old gimmick, as old as the first light weight fiber based
bodyvest invented in the 60s.

Richard Davis in 1975 was one of the first ones to do this stunt on a body
vest. Check out the video here =>
[https://youtu.be/IwBLL7Z3OvU?t=91](https://youtu.be/IwBLL7Z3OvU?t=91)

I do vaguely remember seeing someone put the Kevlar vest (invented in the
1960s) also to test in a similar manner i.e. by wearing it and getting shot,
but I can't seem to find that video (maybe I had it wrong).

> Stephanie Kwolek, who died Wednesday at 90, was a DuPont Co. chemist who in
> 1965 invented Kevlar, the lightweight, stronger-than-steel fiber used in
> bulletproof vests and other body armor around the world.

> A pioneer as a woman in heavily male field, Kwolek made the breakthrough
> while working on specialty fibers at a DuPont laboratory in Wilmington. She
> developed a liquid crystalline solution that could be spun into
> exceptionally tough fibers, several times stronger by weight than steel.

Source:
[https://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/06/stephanie_kw...](https://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/06/stephanie_kwolek_dupont_chemis.html)

~~~
_asummers
The practice is even older than that. Otis when demoing his elevator cut the
only rope holding up the elevator platform, as far back as the mid-1800s.

~~~
bradknowles
The practice goes back to the 1600s, at least.

Google for “proof mark” relative to breast plate armor.

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vorpalhex
I guess that's one way to stand behind your products?

I question the size of the market for this kind of thing. You might wear one
if you're paranoid or an undercover cop, but otherwise who, exactly, would
wear this? If you're on a range, an actual vest isn't out of place, likewise
for actual security or guard duty. If you feel the need to wear armor every
day and can't openly wear a ballistic vest, you might want to consider moving.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
>I question the size of the market for this kind of thing.

Once you get below a certain price point every low-level employee who has to
handle a large amount of cash enters your target market.

They can branch out into "traditional" PPE if they really need to. Work
clothing with reinforcement over key areas would be a big hit in some
industries (at the right price of course).

>If you feel the need to wear armor every day and can't openly wear a
ballistic vest, you might want to consider moving.

Your house doesn't almost catch fire every day yet you probably have smoke
alarms. I can see a handgun proof polo shirt being quite popular among
politicians on the campaign trail.

~~~
GFischer
Heck, president-elect Bolsonaro got stabbed campaigning in Brazil.

I'm not sure if current presidents use bulletproof clothing.

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13415
That's very common practice.

I've seen in a documentary that everyone who works at Miguel Caballero's
bullet proof clothing company in Colombia has to be shot at least once while
wearing one of his shirts or jackets. I tried to find the original docu but
couldn't find it, but you can look up his company and check out the _I was
shot_ section on the company website.[1]

[1] [https://miguelcaballero.com/en/i-was-
shot/](https://miguelcaballero.com/en/i-was-shot/)

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danielvf
Most competitive handgun shooters in the US load their own ammunition. Besides
being cheaper and higher quality, it allows them to customize exactly the
amount of gunpowder and weight of the bullet. In general, lighter loads are
preferred because it creates less recoil, which lets you shoot faster in a
competition. Because of this, each handgun shooting sports has a specified
lower limit on how little power you can make your shot have, and competitors
usually stay just a few percentage points above this.

So it's entirely possible to do this demo with considerably less force that
would come from factory ammo.

~~~
daeken
Well, he said 124 grain. That's about 1200 ft/s, which is - in technical
terminology - a goddamn fast bullet.

~~~
hkchad
That's the weight of the bullet, not how much or what kind of powder, which
both can make a world of difference.

~~~
daeken
You're 100% right -- I got mixed up. Thanks for the correction.

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methodover
Wearable bulletproof jackets make much more sense to me than a handgun for
practical defense.

I have lived in Oakland for the last 5 years, in nice areas. During that time:

\- Brian Bore, a 30 year old data scientist was walking home from a bar just
down the street from where I lived at the time, and was shot dead. They never
caught the murderer. [1]

\- A couple blocks away from my office in downtown Oakland, a woman was shot
by a stay bullet during the day, [2] and teen's funeral was attacked and a
16-year old girl was killed. [3]

There have been other incidents as well, for which I do not have news sources:
My S/O at the time was held up at gunpoint and his wallet and phone stolen. My
morning coffee place had a mugging at gunpoint at 10 AM on Saturday morning (I
arrived a half hour after it happened).

Our city is plagued by gun violence. It disturbs me greatly.

However, I don't think getting a gun myself makes sense. I have no problem
with a gun for protection, but the kind of gun violence we face in this city
is not the kind that is easily solved with a pistol. When someone has a gun
trained on you and is trying to mug you, a gun of your own is not likely to
help with that situation. If you're hit by a stray bullet, that's another
situation that a gun of your own doesn't help with. And for just drive-by
shootings, or whatever happened to Brian Bore, a gun of your own doesn't help
at all.

A lightweight bulletproof jacket makes a LOT more sense.

Consider me an interested buyer. I wonder how light it is -- the jacket in the
video looks pretty hefty.

1\. [https://abc7news.com/news/former-nasa-scientist-fatally-
shot...](https://abc7news.com/news/former-nasa-scientist-fatally-shot-in-
oakland/1288472/)

2\. [https://abc7news.com/news/innocent-bystander-hurt-in-
oakland...](https://abc7news.com/news/innocent-bystander-hurt-in-oakland-
shooting/1147672/)

3\. [https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Downtown-Oakland-
rush...](https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Downtown-Oakland-rush-hour-
shooting-sends-8157911.php)

~~~
foxyv
I definitely agree. A gun on your person isn't going to stop the bullets you
don't see. The robber or psycho will always have the drop on you. If you watch
the Youtube channel "Active Self Protection", he goes over tons of scenarios
caught on camera and a lot of them DO NOT end well even if the victim is
armed. And THEN if the victim does manage to defend themselves they can end up
dealing with legal issues afterwards even if they never fire their weapon.
Even pulling a pistol is technically assault with a deadly weapon in most
cities and if you don't follow the rules you can go to jail for a long time.

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hayksaakian
Definitely qualifies as a publicity stunt and seems to have worked.

~~~
xeromal
Agreed. Takes some huevos to shoot oneself so I'm a believer haha.

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fugazithehaxoar
Suddenly I have come to the realization that my CEO's job is easy.

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anonlastname
This obviously worked as a fundraising stunt, but the technology is not new. I
recall seeing other people doing this on TV and a few weeks ago some rapper
did it on an Instagram live stream.

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alberteinstein
Whether it's a gimmick or not, the fact that there is a need/demand for such
products is a scary one. People want to wear bullet proof fashionable clothing
since they are not sure when they'll be shot at? It didn't matter how ugly
bullet proof vests are since those who wore them didn't care how they looked,
they just wanted to stay alive. This is really scary.

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buzzdenver
I've never tried to shoot anyone, but aren't most people aiming for the head?
So the jacket is only a marginal improvement, which is still nice considering
the stakes.

~~~
dragonwriter
Standard initial training in most places are that train shooters is “shoot
center of mass”; more advanced training is usually “shoot center of mass
_first_ , then...”.

Shooting other than center of mass drops likelihood of hitting a lot, and even
most well-trained shooters aren't accurate enough to reliably hit anything
else under conditions where you actually are going to be shooting in earnest.

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pcurve
better avoid shooting them ribs...

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Bedon292
Edit: Apparently I should have looked for more videos on youtube. The ones
others have provided make me believe. Still think they should have rented a
real high speed camera though.

\-----

Mad props if he actually did this, but a bit skeptical here. I see no evidence
there was an actual live round in there. It could well have been a blank. On
the other video further down the page they remove the magazine and show the
round, and there is visible damage to the clothes they shoot. I see no visible
damage, and he didn't bother to recover the round as in other video either. If
I were pulling this stunt I would certainly have a high speed camera to show
it in action. Other thing I noticed is there is a muzzle flash on the full
speed and then when they slow it down there is not? Could be an odd artifact,
but could also be added?

~~~
jackhack
My experience with body armor is based on equipment from the 1990s so take
this for what it's worth.

While the bullet may not penetrate the cloth, it often results in broken ribs
and a great amount of bruising underneath. Damage to liver, spleen, lungs and
heart is also possible due to the shock of impact -- that energy has to go
somewhere. So even if it doesn't penetrate, you might still die. Very large
handgun rounds may deform the inner surface of the vest into a cupped shape.
Rifle rounds travel at much, much higher velocity and carry so much energy
that they usually punch right through. That's why a plate carrier is needed to
protect the heart from rifle rounds.

it's basically the same trauma as being hit in the ribs with a sledge hammer
or a baseball bat, swung at full speed. You'll likely survive, but you'll
almost certainly likely be injured to one degree or another. In short, it
won't be pleasant.

~~~
vorpalhex
Rifle rounds pack a whole lot more power than 9mm, the flip side is that 9mm
is very common. One of the original inventors of the second chance vests shot
himself with a .357 point blank in front of an audience and walked away:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwBLL7Z3OvU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwBLL7Z3OvU)

