A new ban on the sale of bullet-resistant vests to the majority of civilians in New York doesn’t include the body armor worn by the gunman in the mass shooting in Buffalo in May. During the rampage, a teenage white supremacist decked out in tactical gear murdered 10 Black people at a Tops Friendly Markets store. The shooter protected himself during the slaughter with a steel-plated vest—strong enough to stop a handgun bullet fired by a store security guard attempting to end the massacre. A new state law introduced after the mass shooting restricts sales of “bullet-resistant soft body armor,” which can be used for defense against pistols. But critics point out that vests using steel plates—as well as polyethylene and ceramic plates—aren’t explicitly proscribed by the ban.
