It's days away from kids heading back into the classrooms. The stores are packed with parents and children with their lists of required needs. The parents hope for great deals for those new pair of shoes, clothing, and a shiny new backpack to carry all the pens, notebooks, rulers, erasers, and crayons. In the state of Florida, there is a five-day sales tax exemption on many school supplies that helps with the high cost of sending a child to school.

However, the other day I was watching the nightly news and Lester Holt introduced a segment regarding bulletproof backpacks. There is was an increase in the sales of these types of backpacks after the weekend of mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

Before you stop and google where you can find a bulletproof backpack, I'll tell you. Amazon is a retailer of these so-called safety devices. There are even ones with Disney and other characters on them. There are adult backpacks that are worn as bulletproof vests. There is also inserts you can purchase to make a backpack bulletproof.

What is not in the advertisement is that they don't stop all the bullets — so the ever-popular AR-15 that most mass shooter use will not be stopped by your child's backpack, even if the child remembers how to use it properly to prevent injury or death.

If a parent needs this type of security for their child, I would hope they would do their research. There are levels of protection. According to Backdoorsurvival.com, several ratings are starting with Level I through Level IV and those are the plates that are inserted into a backpack. A bulletproof backpack is all Level 3A which means it is soft body armor material and does not stop all bullets. The cost ranges from the $200 to $500 depending on the type and if added inserts for more protection. But be aware the bulletproof plates are heavy, and most children won't be able to carry it along with all their books, laptop, and notebooks.

Of course, this is not a prevention to the never-ending need for gun control. The current administration and the legislative branches are pointing fingers or sending out their thoughts and prayers to the victims of the latest mass shootings. We have two dozen Democratic candidates that are espousing to the need for everything from background checks, bans on assault rifles, to overwhelming gun control and not one of them got off their stumps and gave blood or donated money to the victims loved ones.

I did a survey and asked a variety of people if they knew there were bulletproof backpacks on the market and if they could, would they buy one. To my surprise, every mother I spoke with said they would buy one, but none of the women were aware of their availability. One young mother said she would teach her child how to properly use it. The men were on the fence thinking it is a false sense of security and in no way can prevent a bullet if a shooter has a high-powered weapon that is shooting rounds ten times faster than a child can take cover.

In the meantime, the manufactures of body armor now have an open door to the public and will actively use this and future mass shootings to sell any type of bulletproof items they can market to the naïve and fearing public. Like the bomb shelters of the past, we are now a generation of living in a military state of confusion and fear. There will be more and more attempts from companies to profit off the fears, giving parents a sense of security that will be costly. I hope their child only has to use their bulletproof backpack to carry their school supplies and not as a shield.