The Quick Guide To Body Armor

By Author: James Melia
Total Articles: 6
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Different pieces of body armor are created to be used at different times, so it's important to determine whether you're going to be wearing your body armor below or above your clothes.

Covert forms of body armor are meant to be used under clothes.

Due to this they are generally designed to be as slender and as lightweight as they can be, and are made to be hidden when put on beneath clothes.

These kinds of body armor are commonly made out of moisture wicking fabric that help to keep the wearer cool, and they are frequently produced in lighter colours than other types of body armor.

Covert body armor is usually used by people who prefer the fact they're wearing body armor to go unnoticed.

This is individuals such as close protection officers, undercover operatives and door supervisors, where an overt type of body armor would not be practical for them.

Overt kinds of body armor are designed to be worn above your clothes, and consequently they tend to be made of stronger fabrics than covert pieces of body armor.

The idea of overt body armor is it will be obvious to others, and ...
... due to this fact normal overt body armor covers are black, but there are many other colors available.

In many instances overt types of body armor will have high visibility markings, or be made entirely from high visibility materials, ensuring that the wearer sticks out.

Police forces around the world wear overt kinds of body armor, as do security companies and security staff. An overt piece of body armor will work as a deterrent, because it can help identify individuals of power very easily within a group.

Body armor has come to be popular over the last twenty-five years, for 2 main reasons.

Firstly, early forms of body armor were heavy and stiff, but breakthroughs in technology means that the body armor we benefit from these days can offer high levels of protection, while also being light-weight, flexible and comfy when worn for long periods of time.

The second cause for the rise in body armor use is because, unfortunately, it's becoming required in many types of work due to the increased threats that many of us have to deal with in modern-day society.

Once you've decided if you need a covert or overt piece of body armor, it's then vital to select what protection levels you need. When deciding on a piece of body armor you should take into consideration what kinds of threats that you're going to face, since different types of body armor will give you protection for different kinds of risks.

A bullet proof vest is probably the most well known type of body armor available on the market.

This sort of body armor is created to stop a round by "catching" it in a web of ultra strong fibers, preventing it from penetrating through the jacket itself.

They can provide various levels of protection, which can offer the person wearing them protection from low powered firearms up to high powered Magnums.

Another popular form of body armor is stab resistant vests.

Most people think that if a unit of body armor can stop a round it may be able to stop a blade, however this isn't the case.

The reason being a knife penetrates material in a different way to a round, and therefore a standard bullet resistant jacket would not protect its wearer from a blade based assault.

In recent years spike proof vests have also become obtainable on the body armor marketplace.

These kinds of vests provide the wearer protection from spiked weapons such as needles and also syringes, which can easily slip through the weave in the material of a bullet or stab resistant piece of body armor.

With such a selection of body armor available you will need to think about which kind is correct for yourself.

If you're operating in a place with absolutely no gun crime but high levels of knife crime then it is useless wearing an item of body armor that can only protect you against firearms.

Similarly a knife proof piece of body armor is pointless if you're at risk of being shot.

Thankfully modern day types of body armor can now offer multi-threat protection.

Because of this they'll protect the person wearing them from a variety of assaults, for instance there is now body armor which is both bullet and stab resistant, and even bullet, stab and spike proof varieties.

The most important aspect in choosing your body armor is to be certain that it's going to protect you.

Make certain you have the appropriate kind of protection for the dangers you'll face, because you can not put a price on your life.