Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo plugged a company on her show that makes bulletproof backpacks and clothing — with the suggestion that it could potentially keep children safe from active shooting events at their school.
“Back to school backpacks taking on all new meaning this morning,” said a cheerful Bartiromo on her show Monday, with La Roux’s “Bulletproof” blaring in the background.
“MC Armor is the company behind high-end bulletproof backpacks and clothing that are revamping the protective equipment market,” she continued, “It is anticipated to reach more than $5 billion in the next seven years. That would be the revenue in this business.”
Off set, a show employee could be heard gasping as B-roll played of an actor being shot in the stomach at point-blank range, apparently without injury, while wearing MC Armor.
Things only got more explicit when Bartiromo welcomed MC Armor marketing manager Carolina Ballesteros to explain the products.
“In the U.S. sadly we have the gun fact,” said Ballesteros. “Everybody can have a gun. So here kids need to be protected and the fact is there are some school issues. So we need to bring this to the United States.”
“It’s incredible that it’s come to this though. That we need bulletproof clothing,” said Bartiromo. “Some of these things are quite fashion forward.”
Indeed the “gun fact” is not news to most Americans who have become used to stories of regular gun violence in the United States in schools and elsewhere. Excluding suicide, more than 15,000 Americans were killed in gun violence in 2017 according to the Gun Violence Archive.
The most recent high profile school shooting in Parkland, Florida helped reignite a national conversation about the issue, with survivors going on to become celebrities in their own right. But the near round the clock media attention has broadly failed to move the needle at the federal level for activists demands of increased gun control legislation.