It was more than a spike in sales that they could have projected, at the expense of those killed during last Friday's Sandy Hook shooting massacre. Manufacturers of bulletproof backpacks specially designed to cater to children's sizes and needs have reported booming sales as parents continue to get anxious over the welfare of their children a week after a 20-year-old alleged mentally deranged man opened fire and killed 26 people in Connecticut, United States.

Elmar Uy, vice president of sales for Bullet Blocker, at first was surprised of the zooming number of sales of his company's bulletproof backpacks for kids. He admitted it was only when he checked on the day's news that he finally understood why.

"Part of my daily activity is to monitor the numbers," he said. "I was seeing numbers I'd never seen before and I thought it was a glitch. Our Web traffic was10 times more than normal."

"I turned on the TV and there it was on CNN."

Since last week's shooting massacre at Sandy Hook, Bullet Blocker have been selling 50 to 100 bulletproof backpacks for kids, compared to a previous average of 15 to 20 backpacks.

Amendment II, another bulletproof manufacturer, likewise reported their sales of bulletproof backpacks and child-sized body armor have risen by as much as 500 per cent.

"We've seen incredible demand, sales have gone up 500 percent for those particular products," Derek Williams, director of sales and marketing, said. "It's just gone through the roof."

As for Bullet Blocker, sales have likewise surged to a whopping 300 per cent to 400 per cent jump.

For as little as only $300, the backpacks sold by Amendment II can stop a bullet fired from a .357 Magnum. It also features an armor component weighing only just 10 ounces.

"It's so lightweight, it only adds 10 ounces to their backpack," Mr Williams told FoxNews.com. "Would this armor have helped the kids in Connecticut? We don't know, but any armor is better than no armor."

The ones being sold by Bullet Blocker are currently on sale for $199.99. They also sell shields or bulletproof inserts that can slide into backpacks, laptop bags or purses.

Parents have mixed reactions to the proliferation of bulletproof backpacks kids, saying these items will just all the more fuel kids' fear and anxieties and do not directly solve the issue. Parents would rather call for a more reasonable approach to gun laws.

"I think when these things happen we have the chance to ask ourselves tough questions," Maryann Martindale, executive director of the Alliance for a Better Utah, Fox 13. "One of those is what kind of a society do we want to live in? Do we want to live in a society where we send our kids to school in Kevlar backpacks and arm our teachers? I think we create more chaos by responding that way."

"It is an awful thing - you would never imagine your child with this kind of stuff - but since the Newtown tragedy, our sales are more than 10 times better than usual," Richard Craig, head of Amendment II, said.

"We do not want to sensationalise this any more than it already is," Mr Williams said. "The fact of the matter is, in today's world, this need exists and if we have the technology to protect people, why would we not allow them to purchase it?"

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