Body Armor for the Masses

If you have ever worn body armor for long periods, you know it is hot, heavy, and restricting. That’s especially true of Level IV rigid armor designed to stop rifle bullets. Outside the military and law enforcement, and even within it, most people who wear body armor never have to rely on it to stop a bullet from entering their body.

But just like your EDC gun and fire extinguishers, you never really need it until you do. And when you do need it, nothing else can take its place. There are multiple things to consider when deciding to buy body armor as a private citizen.

Any discussion of body armor should be prefaced with an explanation of the NIJ Body Armor Levels. Body armor fits into two main categories: flexible and rigid.

Flexible armor, primarily Kevlar panels, has the advantages of being more comfortable to wear and easier to conceal than rigid armor. On the other hand, most flexible armor will not stop many rifle rounds. Even when it does stop a bullet, the wearer is subjected to impact trauma in the area under the strike point. This can result in bruising, cracked ribs, and even internal organ damage. Some newer types of flexible armor have improved penetration and traumatic injury resistance.

Rigid armor is just what the name implies. It is composed of rigid plates that fit into a plate carrier or pocket in a flexible armor vest. The highest-rated body armor is of rigid construction. It will stop practically any type of small-arms bullet except for some armor-piercing rounds. It also protects the wearer better against impact trauma by spreading the force of the impact over a large area.

Initially, rigid armor was constructed of steel plates. The armor I was first issued in Iraq had steel plates. Steel performs well and is less expensive than ceramic plates. It is also heavier, and bullets striking a steel plate on an angle are more likely to ricochet off the plate and hit someone on either side of the target than with composite plates.

The fact that US troops are wounded and killed in action is a testimony to the fact that body armor is not foolproof. Even the Interceptor Multi-Threat Body Armor System, and later the Improved Outer Tactical Vest issued to American troops, cannot stop all the incoming threats.

As a civilian, you won’t be using military armor. I wore body armor five to six days a week over the 2 ½ years I worked private security in Iraq, and we didn’t even have military armor. I wore a simple plate carrier with Level IV plates over a standard Level III soft vest.

During my time in Iraq, I saw several instances where people wearing body armor were wounded or killed. In one case, a fellow contractor on our team was killed when he was struck in the neck by an AK47 round. Unless you are wearing plates that cover your body like a Medieval suit of armor, it can’t protect you against everything.

On the other end of the spectrum, I recall us all checking out one of the team members who’d had his jacket nailed to his ceramic plate by a 3″ sliver of steel from an IED. It can and does save lives. This is especially true in civilian life where most shots are placed center of mass.

Body armor does have applications in civilian life. It also has some significant limitations.

The biggest limitation on body armor for a civilian is simply the fact that you don’t wear it all the time. If you’re not wearing it, it can’t protect you. But since private citizens don’t armor up for security detail assignments or to go on patrol, body armor owned by civilians spends most of its time sitting in their equipment room.

The next limitation goes along with the first one. It takes time to put on body armor. It’s not a terribly long time, but long enough that you won’t be throwing it on in the event of a violent home invasion. With practice, you may be able to get it on quickly in response to a bump in the night. You should be able to get it on before heading out the door to investigate something happening outside if you do that sort of thing.

Another limitation is concealability. Many soft types of body armor can be worn under your clothes, and there are even armored T-shirts available. These will protect you against most handgun cartridges. But rigid plates that will protect you against rifle rounds are virtually impossible to successfully conceal unless you are wearing a heavy winter coat or a very large and baggy sweatshirt. That means that they are not practical to wear in most social situations.

The reality is that body armor, especially rigid armor capable of stopping rifle cartridges, is not easy to put on. Because the front plate must be one solid piece to do its job, plate carriers must be donned by putting it on over your head and then fastening the side straps. You can leave one side strap always fastened to speed up the process, but it still takes a bit of practice to do it quickly.

Rigid body armor is also heavy and hot to wear. Trust me, I have worn it for hours in 100° + temperatures and can attest to how good it feels to take it off.

Currently, it takes a lot of searching to find rigid body armor for women. That’s because it isn’t easy to manufacture plates that fit a woman’s body. It’s even more difficult to conceal plates that fit a woman. Flexible body armor is a bit easier for women to wear, but it still takes some work to get the right fit.

Because of the way body armor fits your body, it makes it impractical to wear your handgun in an OWB holster at your hip and pretty much anywhere with an IWB holster. This is why drop-leg thigh holsters were invented. Something else that makes concealability virtually impossible.

Finally, body armor is expensive. Not prohibitively so, but a decent rig will easily run you the same as the cost of your EDC handgun. Prices start at the $200 to $300 range and can go up to $800+ depending on what brand and type you are buying.

Personal body armor is firmly in the sights of the Liberal anti-2A movement. In some states, such as New York, purchasing or owning body armor is illegal. Other states, like California, have laws in the works to restrict it from private citizens.

On the Federal level, Congress introduced bills to restrict ownership. HR 4568, the Responsible Body Armor Possession Act, was introduced by Representative Grace Meng (D-NY) in 2020. Had it passed, it would have made it a federal felony punishable by ten years in prison for a citizen to purchase or own Level III body armor, although there was a grandfather clause allowing you to keep it if you owned it before the law went into effect. That bill failed, but you can be certain they will try again.

Ostensibly, the reason behind the proposed and existing bans is the safety of law enforcement when dealing with criminals and active shooters. There have indeed been some cases of criminals and active shooters wearing body armor, but it is far from being the norm. Most criminals run around in their street clothes just like everybody else. Personally, I believe that one of the main reasons the government wants to outlaw body armor is the same as the reason they want to outlaw many kinds of guns: they want the population disarmed and easy to control.

Whatever the reason, personal body armor is on the Democrat’s list of things to outlaw, along with guns and gas stoves. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but not allowing me to own body armor because someone used it in a crime is like taking my car away because my neighbor caused an accident while driving drunk.

Although body armor does have its limitations, there are multiple realistic civilian applications for owning and using it.

We’ve all seen pictures of store owners and their friends standing in front of their businesses armed and wearing body armor during riots in recent years. This is an obvious application for civilian body armor that isn’t just limited to businesses. There may come a time when law-abiding citizens will be forced to defend their homes from mobs seeking violence or looting.

With the situation deteriorating in many large cities and even some smaller ones, after-hours smash-and-grab crime has become more common. There have been several instances where business owners have used an AR to defend their property after hours. This is a situation where body armor would be an advantage. However, given the speed with which smash-and-grab robberies occur, you would have to already be wearing armor for it to be useful.

Although it is unlikely you would have time to don armor in a violent home invasion, you would conceivably have time to put it on to investigate a sound in the house, garage, or yard. The armor would have to be staged next to your bed to be quickly accessible. You would also have to be practiced in putting it on to speed up getting dressed, but it would be possible.

I include this situation only because I have actually seen people show up at a gun range in plate carriers. Neither I nor anyone I know feels the need to wear body armor at the range, apart from training classes or tactical shooting competitions that require it. But I suppose with all the uncertainty in the world, some people would feel more comfortable wearing it in a situation where there are a lot of armed strangers around them. To each their own.

Unless you live hundreds of miles from large population centers, most SHTF scenarios you can imagine will have a high risk of human predation. Looters and mobs of desperate people determined to take whatever they can find from anyone who has it will probably be a genuine hazard. A good set of body armor could be as critical as guns and ammunition.

Body armor, like your gun, is a tool. It is not the end-all be-all of self-protection. Like your handgun, you must understand its best applications as well as its limitations for it to be beneficial. Do I think it’s worth the investment? Yes, I do.

If you are planning or even just deciding whether to purchase personal body armor, it’s important to understand its limitations and how you will be using it. Check the laws where you live, then do your homework to select quality body armor that fits your needs at a good price. Decide when and how you will use it, and practice getting in and out of it.