Bullet-proof backpack latest for kids

DANVERS, Mass., Aug. 16 (UPI) -- One new product this fall for U.S. schoolchildren is a backpack with a bulletproof lining.

The backpacks are being marketed by MJ Safety Solutions, a company founded by Mike Pelonzi and Joe Curran of Massachusetts.

"I'm a parent and so is Joe and we wanted a way of keeping kids safe at school and this is what we came up with," Pelonzi told the Staten Island Advance.

The company sells two sizes, one for books and the other for laptop computers. Both have a light metal plate sewn into the back, guaranteed to stop bullets although weighing no more than a bottle of water.

The MJ Solutions Web site says that there have been 328 incidents school shootings since 1999 with 229 dead and 422 injured.

“In almost 97 percent of these documented incidents, MJ Safety Solutions' backpack could have provided the ballistic protection that could have saved lives," the site claims.

The makers say that the backpacks will also protect against knives and other weapons.