Why is there not a bustling market for bullet proof vests for the civilian market?

Because beyond all that, Yankees , feel they live in the best safest country in the world and all that bad stuff happens to someone else it will never happen to me,type thing .

I would need a whole new wardrobe to fit over the vest.

They are too hot and stuffy. I just shoot first and never run away. ~

I suspect this is commentary rather than a question. But I’ll just add that a desire to wear body armor would be fueled by the same motivation that leads some people to decide they need to have a gun in the house: fear, and an inability to reasonably assess risk.

I think you are mistaken on your take regarding the vests. Like guns themselves, the market for the things is already HUGE. And just like weapons, the demand and consumption are over the top in the United States. There is a great future here for any fear driven commodity. Just wait for it. Exploitation of the vests as “fashion” statements is in our near future. You can bank on it (literally).

Haha, in America, they’d have to order a shit load of supersize vests.

I’ve lived in the Colonies my whole life and I hardly ever get shot.

Maybe “whiteface” would be a better product to sell.

I just ruptured something rolling my eyes.

Balance of threat versus convenience. I figure that the chance of actually being in a situation where a vest would be useful is VERY VERY small. And the inconvenience factor is pretty high.

Read some of the books on behavioral economics. (by Dan Ariely and others)

From what the cop at work tells me, the vests (at least the vests that the cops wear) are custom fitted. I am betting that the average person couldn’t afford something like that, and if it’s custom fitted and someone gained or lost weight, they’d need to go and pay for another fitting.

@jca Yes, when I was doing some reporting, I remember a story about a local businessman donating $50,000 to buy some vests for some of a town’s police force. And this was years ago!

@janbb: I’m going to ask the cop on Monday what police vests cost. He’d know.

I depend on the incompetence of the shooters

When I worked on the ambulance there was a nutjob who took pot shots at the medics on the scene. We are the Good guys! We are dressed in White! There is no question about who we are. In-freaking-credible!!!
The Town quickly bought a couple of vests for the medics to wear.

Fortunately the police quickly caught the scumbag gentleman.

I think having to wear body armor might be an outward expression of a guilty conscience.

First kevlar has an expiration date. Its strength decays over time, and needs to be replaced. Given how expensive it is and how relatively unlikely people are to be shot and even if shot, how unlikely it is for a shooter to be courteous enough to target only the areas covered by the kevlar, it’s just not practical.

It’s also illegal to wear body armour without a license in some places. Under Kanadian law, for example, it’s illegal to resist a police beating. If a cop is hitting you with a baton and you raise your arm in self-defence, you can and will be charged with “assault police.” The reasoning is that since the police are using legal force on you, attempting to prevent that force is a form of assault on the police’s authority.

I wear a police tactical mesh vest in the summer to carry all my stuff with me, and I’ve been checked many times by police to verify that my vest is not illegally bullet-proof. If a cop is shooting you, protecting yourself from the cop’s bullet is a form of assault.