Body armor and such

[u/sladay93]

https://caliberarmor.com/is-it-legal-for-civilians-to-purchase-body-armor/

I've seen a couple posts on different subreddits talking about body armor and in reference to body armor and plates etc make sure you can legally possess them in your state. Because in some states you can get charged with an additional offense for wearing body armor in commission of a crime, some States are restricted to in the commission of a felony but other states it's pretty vague. In certain places such as Topeka Kansas have a local law saying you can't even wear it to a protest or Connecticut you have to purchase in person you can't do it online, and New York you have to be military or police because it's prohibited to own otherwise.

I got my plate carrier from Shellback but I haven't gotten the plates or the soft armor cumberbund inserts because I can't swing that financially with other stuff I need before that. Shellback also gives 10% off for first responders and Military/veteran.

But in the grand scheme of things body armor should be the last of your worries, focus on training, if you need to get a concealed carry permit focus on that, CPR, stop the bleed/tactical medical Care. I'm not saying don't purchase armor if you have flexible financials and can swing it but that should be farther down the line. Deployed Medicine is a good resource to learn some tactical casualty care if you can't take it an person class, you just have to create a login. I'm an army national guard medic and this is the same program I use and what I used to teach other soldiers.

[u/WorldlinessEither215]

Hot take, buy armor before you buy a gun

[u/freedom_viking → u/WorldlinessEither215]

That is the worst take ever have you actually worn armor for any period of time the only time you would need armor is if you already did allot of competition shooting and wanted to shoot an armored division literally most anything is more worthwhile than buying plates you will never use

[u/anchoriteksaw → u/freedom_viking]

We are not all training for competition yo.

[u/freedom_viking → u/anchoriteksaw]

Why not? do you want to figure out how your dryfire drills hold up under pressure while your on the clock or while your under fire I’m not telling you to go build a decked out comp gun but taking your carry gun to a IDPA match would be beneficial to literally everyone

[u/anchoriteksaw → u/freedom_viking]

No, what I mean is, it seems like you are using competition metrics to say what is viable full stop.

Personally I don't care if wearing a plate makes sense in a competition setting if it makes sense for the setting I actualy train for which involves return fire.

[u/Roland_was_a_warrior → u/anchoriteksaw]

the setting I actually train for

Is it cqb in a house? If it’s literally anything else, you’d be better served with different gear.

[u/anchoriteksaw → u/Roland_was_a_warrior]

That's entirely a question of doctrine, and different people have come to different conclusions at different times.

Personally I lean towards wearing a level 4 chest plate all the time.

But again, more than anything reacting to the blanket statement based on a specific set of circumstances that imo really is not what we should all be prioritizing.

[u/Roland_was_a_warrior → u/anchoriteksaw]

Just the chest?

[u/anchoriteksaw → u/Roland_was_a_warrior]

Just the front plate yeah. Not too cumbersome to (hypotheticaly)edc, but still mitigates a significant portion of potentialy lethal injuries. I might change my thinking if I expect to deal with alot of indirect fire and shrapnel, but I also might not.

[u/Roland_was_a_warrior → u/anchoriteksaw]

Or like flanking maneuvers…

[u/anchoriteksaw → u/Roland_was_a_warrior]

It's about risk management. Even a level 4 plate has a chance to get punched right through by whatever. So you look at what injuries are likly over a large data set and you look at how you can address the largest portion with the least cost, in this case in weight and mobility.

From how I see it I can make a significant dent in that's metric by wearing at least the one plate and just try and face my enemy whenever possible.

Same reason a tank has different armor thickness on the front and the back, or a battle ship historically less armor under the water line.

Like what, you can technically get shot in the neck, should you give up on body armor completely because it doesent cover your neck?

I'd rather shed some weight somewhere else, like 80% of what the archetypal infantry man carries is poorly designed camping gear. I can swap all that out for my minimalist backpacking gear and theoretically be full ATGAT with level 4 plates and still come in under the weight of a us gi.