Question: Is there such a thing as a Bullet Proof Body Bubble?"

[goclark]

I sincerely want to know ~

We have Bullet Proof Vests and now I want to know if there is/ can be an invisible type covering for the vital areas of the body - head to top of the legs, for example.

The Covering would be like a wet suit worn under the clothing - can't visualize how it could be on the face without the person being unable to breath but its 2010 and anything is possible.

:shrug:

Thanks for being kind enough to help me understand, I am very concerned about the anger in the country now.

I'm a Senior lady and my only experience with Guns was in Summer Camp when I was 10 yrs. old. We were taught at the Rifle Range and of course, the importance of Safety was stressed.

[MineralMan]

1. No. And nobody is planning to shoot you, so relax.

Don't let the noisy, noxious bastards make you afraid. They aren't coming out of their mom's basements to come attack you. Truly.

[aikoaiko]

2. I don't think so.

Technology just isn't there yet, as far as I know.

[goclark]

4. After posting I found this ~~~

http://www.newser.com/story/48535/obama-was-10-feet-tall-and-bullet-proof.html

[SteveSund]

3. Nope, not there yet...

Most vests and body armor are not very comfortable and the lighter stuff tends to offer less protection.

[goclark]

5. Thanks Steve, I found this after posting

http://www.newser.com/story/48535/obama-was-10-feet-tall-and-bullet-proof.html

It's not my bubble but it's better than just a vest IMO.

[PavePusher]

6. I hate to "burst your bubble"...

but most soft "body armor" is useless against any rifle bullet. They are designed to stop or slow the fatter, slower, pistol bullets, and the effective ones weigh a lot and constrict movement, are very hot in even moderate temps and normally cover very limited areas of the torso.

For rifle resistance, you have to add very heavy metal and/or ceramic plates, weight goes up by 2-400%, and mobility reduces considerably.

For the vast majority of non-LEO civilians, day-to-day it's really not going to help you. If you are actually preparing for something like the L.A. riots or similar, different story.

[goclark]

8. I happened to have been in Los Angeles during the riots

and it was extremely frightening.

Lots of broken windows in stores and big tanks driving up and down major streets.

I am not concerned about myself.

I am concerned about our elected officials that have been spit on, cursed at and nothing has happened to them.

Freedom of Speech seems to be the law of the land for Republicans.

No, I am more concerned about others.

[PavePusher]

9. What's wrong with Freedom of Speech?

It applies to everyone equally.

I do have problems with people being spit on. Happens to both sides, you know. Legally, I believe it is considered Assault, but pretty minor unless someone id trying to spread an infection.

Talk? Curses? If a pol can't take verbal abuse, they aren't fit for any office, party irrelevant.

And guess what? All those pols being threatened? They have tax-dollar paid security. I'm not going to worry to much about them, I'm worried about the Average Joe's, whom some of those threatened politicians would deny effective tools to defend themselves with, the same tools those same pols benefit from.

[goclark]

10. I never said that anything was wrong with Freedom of Speech

End of Discussion.

[Statistical]

13. Well you certainly implied it

"Freedom of Speech seems to be the law of the land for Republicans."

Shouldn't freedom of speech be the "law of the land" for everyone?

[Euromutt]

7. Short answer: no

For the longer answer, let me state upfront that no body armor is truly "bullet proof." Certain levels of armor are rated to resist a certain number of a certain type of round. The levels most commonly worn by police patrol officers, levels II and III-A, are rated to withstand .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum, respectively. Level III-A is also the toughest level of "soft" body armor, i.e. armor than be worn under clothing.

Let me put it this way: if a system like the one you describe could be made to work, it already would have. The FBI maintains statistics on the numbers of law enforcement officers killed by gunshot wounds to the torso despite wearing body armor (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/killed/2008/data/table_40.html) and of those killed in the period 1999-2008, 77% were killed by bullets bypassing the armor through armholes, the neck opening, between the armor panels, etc. That's obviously a problem that police would like to see fixed, and we can only assume that the reason it hasn't is because current technology doesn't yet allow it.

[benEzra]

11. No. Bullet-resistant vests are made of many layers of thick woven Kevlar

(to stop handgun rounds), or half-inch-thick plates of hardened steel or ceramic composite to stop rifle rounds. There is no material on earth strong enough that a single Saran-wrap-thin sheet would stop a bullet, unless you could make something really stretchy and allow a couple feet of backface deformation. A thick (1.25" or more) sheet of polycast acrylic will stop handgun and intermediate-caliber rifle rounds, but may be penetrated by a high-powered hunting rifle.

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot6.htm
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot6_2.htm
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot6_3.htm
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot6_4.htm

Just to visualize the energies involved, a deer rifle will easily shoot through a half-inch plate of ordinary steel even using softpoint hunting rounds, and will shoot all the way through the front and back of a handgun-resistant vest and keep on going.

[Statistical]

12. No. And no such thing as "bullet proof" vest (or anything).

Correct term is body armor. Armor can be penetrated.

[AtheistCrusader]

14. There is no such thing as 'bulletproof'.

Hope this helps.

[Ter]

15. Yes and no

A body suit made out of carbon nano-tube would stop bullets from handguns. However, while the bullet would be unable to pierce the flexible material, it would easily break your bones underneath. It's slightly better than no protection, but even the toughest person would cower in pain after a shot to the chest.

[pipoman]

16. Yes, yes they do make them...

they just don't make them to fit old ladies...:hide:

[jeepnstein]

17. Yes, they do.

It's called civility. That's what's been sorely lacking in our politics for quite a while now. Used to be a political movement tried to keep it's lunatic fringe on a short leash. Now that fringe is turned loose, even goaded into action, and the mainstream movement connected to it enables the behavior. Both parties do it to some extent but the GOP and it's Tea Party subsidiary are really taking it to a new level.

There is a bubble that will protect one from this most of the time. It's called the United States Secret Service. Problem is it's a very expensive and restrictive bubble.

It's obvious to me that some actors on the political stage want to drive a wedge between elected officials and the public they serve. Keeping the elected officials under some security bubble and isolated from the voters furthers this cause.

Responsibility with speech, with the use of our lawful arms, just plain responsibility for our actions in general is lacking in this nation today.

[dashrif]

18. Yes

in 1984 they made one the only problem reported from one of the testies is "The slow blade penetrates the shield" from Mr. Halleck

[Ready4Change]

19. Not bullet proof. Bullet resistance? Yes.

The short answer is that there is no body armor that meets your request. Something that could be worn daily and covertly under normal clothing would likely be one or two layers of something kevlar-like. Better than nothing, but not something to rely on.

It is possible to get armor that will stop commonly used pistol calibers (.22, .38, 9mm), but even this level of protection is bulky. Such vests tend to be a quarter of an inch thick or more, and are quite stiff. They are usually just a vest, to protect vital organs. If they are to protect more than just your torso then, to allow some flexibility, they are layered around joints. But multiple layers increase thickness (2 quarter inch layers = half an inch.) and all of this gets heavy pretty quick. You might call this 'proof' against smaller caliber bullets, but it might be only resistant to larger calibers (ie: some damage will still get through), and it will offer very little protection against many rifle sized calibers.

There is some armor that offers varying degrees of protection against rifle calibers, but it should be obvious that this level of protection gets even thicker, stiffer and heavier. To stop a rifle round they usually add hard ceramic plates in key locations to protect vitals, but for practicality arms and legs don't usually get that much protection. (Not sure what our military is using lately.)

To see how far you could go in seeking total protection, look at what people in bomb squads wear.

Clearly this isn't something you'd wear everyday, and when you did there would be no way to disguise it.

Your best peace of mind is likely to be found in recognizing how unlikely it is for you to encounter the need for any such thing. Hard to do with the daily barrage of sensationalist news we are confronted with. Just remember that no reporter will ever get paid to report on the billions of people who DON'T get shot each day.