A body armor is one of the means of protection against a criminal armed with firearms or cold weapons. It is a special device for protecting vital organs.

There are various modifications depending on the purpose, circumstances and places of use. It is a cloth vest with protective plates inserted inside made of various materials: titanium, special plastic, special ceramics and other materials. There are bulletproof vests that protect both hands and feet (used by the special services of the United States, France, and England), as well as special impenetrable wigs, shoes, and even socks, gloves, caps, and helmets.

The bulletproof vests that our police and internal troops have are of two types: heavy and lightweight. Heavy ones weigh up to 10-15 kg, cover the chest, back and lower abdomen; light ones – 4-5 kg, cover the chest and back. Withstand a knife blow, a shot from a pistol (TT, PM) from a distance of 50 to 1 m (when fired from a machine gun or automatic rifle at close range – 3-5 m, it is possible to pierce the body armor and wound or fracture the ribs from bullet impacts). Protect from shotgun pellets from hunting rifles and homemade pistols.

Heavy body armor severely restricts movement, lightweight body armor is also not very convenient to handle. Experimental samples of bulletproof vests made in the research Institute of the Ministry of internal Affairs of the RSFSR correspond to the best samples of foreign models, but they still exist in single copies. Bulletproof vests produced in the West weigh from 1 to 3 kg, are comfortable to wear and more difficult to break through.

In our country, there is no established mass production of bulletproof vests for the population. Standard bullet-proof vests manufactured by our industry and businesses protect all of the pistols, and also from hitting sharp objects: knives, shanks, spikes, and blunt objects (stones, sticks, valves, etc.). Some types of body armor protects against shots from machine guns and rifles.

We want to offer you to make a protective jacket from improvised means that can protect you from blows with a knife, an awl, a sharpener, a baton and reduce the possible harm from a firearm shot (see the picture).

For the manufacture of this "home" body armor, you can use improvised material available at your home, various waste products. When making it, connect your familiar specialists-locksmiths, turners, mechanical engineers. The General principle of manufacturing is as follows: take a tank top, an old jacket or t-shirt. On it in places of vital organs, on the chest and back, sewn on the sewing machine or manually pockets of various sizes, depending on what material you have. These pockets are inserted plates of metal or other durable material, the upper part of the pockets is sewn.

Between the pockets, joints are formed, which it is desirable to cover by sewing on the top of the pockets, because during a knife or awl strike, the tip can get into this joint and cause damage to you. The best design option is to strengthen the plate on a strong material; as the scales are located on the fish, i.e. in the lining. Having drilled for this purpose in plates on four holes, sew them to a vest from a tarpaulin with a wire or a strong fishing line so that in places of an overlay of plates on each other holes on them coincided. If it is possible to process the plates, make them slightly convex, sew the fabric on top of the "scales". Choose the length of your home body armor yourself, it can be up to the waist and below the waist.

You can use this home body armor in cases when there are possible meetings with criminals. To complement an improvised bulletproof vest, you can make a cap or helmet with an iron bowl or plate inside. Of course, it is better to have a standard body armor produced by the company. These bulletproof vests are more elegant, their weight is small and they can be worn in any situation without attracting attention.

Please note that home body armor does not guarantee full protection, but it gives confidence and reduces the risk of injury.

(Based on the materials of  Г.Я. Гуров Ю.В. Засечный А.Н. Иванов А.В. Чежути «Азбука защиты от преступников»: МКП «Ассоциации-Олимп»; Москва; 1992).