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Under Armour (UA) has new bullet proof competitor

Tom Barlow — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: Products and Services, Launches, Apple Inc (AAPL), Under Armour'A' (UA), Crocs Inc (CROX)

Under Amour (NYSE:UA) has carved out a handsome niche in the clothing market with their extensive line of form-hugging athletic wear. However, ask any soldier and he'll tell you the clothing would be useless for defense in combat. MJ Safety Solutions has taken the idea more seriously, offering a new line of children's backpacks that are bulletproof.

(Insert here your own comment about what the world is coming to these days.)

After the Columbine slaughter, a pair of Boston-area parents designed the backpacks which contain material that would stop 9mm hollow point bullets fired from 9-10 feet. The idea is that kids always have their backpack at hand, and could use it as a shield against attack. The packs sell for $175.

If these products find a willing market, look for the idea gain traction. In our fearful climate, how long before we see bulletproof ball caps, micro-skirts, golf pants, Crocs (NASDAQ:CROX) , perhaps even Kevlar iPods (Apple, NASDAQ:AAPL) and laptops?

Thanks to Joshua Topolsky at our sister blog Engadget for the lead.

Under Armour (UA) has new bullet proof competitor originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 16 Aug 2007 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What can we do to stop senseless campus shootings?

Jonathan Berr — Tue, 08 May 2007 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Bad News, Television, Rants and Raves

Another senseless shooting has happened near a college campus.

A student at California State University at Fresno has killed 1 and wounded two at an apartment building near campus, according to the Associated Press. Police are now communicating with the suspected shooter Jonquel Brooks and don't know of a motive.

Let's hope our political leaders take quick action to keeps guns out of the hands of dangerous people. Existing laws have too many loopholes that allow people like Virginia Tech mass murder Seung-Heui Cho to buy their weapons with proper permits.

I know that people have the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. Just because I choose not to own guns, doesn't mean I want to stop people from legally purchasing them for hunting or protection. No rights, though, are absolute.

People shouldn't be able to buy as many guns as they want when they want them. They should face a rigorous background check for both criminal and civil actions. No system is foolproof but more checks are needed.

Colleges need to be especially sensitive to these issues. Many mental illnesses manifest themselves when people hit their early 20s. Some students also just can't adjust to college life and require counseling.

People shouldn't come down too harshly on people with these problems because most of them aren't violent. Once they get help, they function just fine.

Unfortunately, this will be far from the last shooting.

What can we do to stop senseless campus shootings? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 08 May 2007 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Virginia Tech mass murderer buys guns illegally. Why wasn't law enforced?

Peter Cohan — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Law, Magazines, Rants and Raves, eBay (EBAY), Wal-Mart (WMT), Scandals

Virginia Tech mass murderer Seung-Hui Cho was mentally deranged. But he had no problem buying his two weapons of mass destruction from a Roanoke, VA gun dealer and the combination of a Green Bay, WI web site and Blacksburg, VA pawnbroker. This got me thinking that there ought to be a law against selling guns to people in his mental condition.

It turns out there is. In this case, the law was simply not enforced. That's Newsweek's revelation. It found that the same 1968 federal gun law that blocks convicted criminals from buying firearms (passed after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy) also prohibits gun purchases by those who have a history of mental illness.

On Cho's gun application -- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Form 4473 -- he was asked: "Have you ever been adjudicated mentally defective or ... committed to a mental institution?" Cho answered "no."

Continue reading Virginia Tech mass murderer buys guns illegally. Why wasn't law enforced?

Virginia Tech mass murderer buys guns illegally. Why wasn't law enforced? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 23 Apr 2007 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Media World: The Virginia Tech circus has only begun

Jonathan Berr — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:19:00 EST

Filed under: Law, Television, Newspapers, Magazines, Internet, General Electric (GE), Time Warner (TWX), Intel (INTC), Marketing and Advertising, Scandals, Columns, CBS Corp 'B' (CBS), News Corp'B' (NWS), Books, Media World

If people connected with the Virginia Tech tragedy are annoyed with the media now, they are going to be furious in the coming months and years.

Now that the family of Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho has issued a public apology, the media circus around the worst mass murder in U.S. history will kick into high gear as print and television reporters, talk show hosts, lawyers and Hollywood agents descend upon anyone even remotely connected to the shootings.

Though reputable news organizations don't pay for stories, Walt Disney Co.'s (NYSE: DIS) ABC, CBS Corp.'s (NYSE: CBS) namesake network and General Electric Co.'s (NYSE: GE) NBC will make people's 15 minutes of fame as comfortable as possible. If they want to meet the star of their favorite TV show, I'm sure that can be arranged.

In addition, there are cable channels including Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) CNN, News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox News and MSNBC along with countless newspapers, magazines, Web sites and local television news broadcasts looking for a fresh angle to tell the story.

Here's how I think the media picture will play out.

First will come, the tearful interview with either the whole Cho family or his sister Sun-Kyung with Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric or Oprah Winfrey. I give Oprah the edge in landing this one because she's Oprah.

Then, will come Seung-Hui Cho biographies as 60 Minutes, Dateline and Primetime Live, find anyone who came in contact with the mass murderer. Dateline is the underdog here given the outrage over the airing of Cho's video confessions by NBC News. Also, keep a look out for multi-part series from the major newspapers.

Instant paperback books about the tragedy with lurid titles should arrive in the next month or two. More serious true crime and non-fiction missives will follow. It will be interesting to see if the Cho family cooperates with any of these projects or finds a ghost writer to tell their story. Is John Grisham busy?

Of course, we can't forget about Hollywood. Sleazy, made-for television movies should hit the networks next year to predictable outrage. In two or three years, more serious films will arrive in theaters. It will be interesting to see who sells their story for what price.

Finally, this all will be replayed on the first, fifth, 10th, 15th and 20th anniversaries of the killings as the media rehashes the tragedy all over again.

Media World: The Virginia Tech circus has only begun originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cho Seung-Hui: Could Virginia Tech faculty have known he would kill?

Sarah Gilbert — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 16:48:00 EST

Filed under: Headline News

I knew one of my colleagues at AOL had attended Virginia Tech; he was still in school when he started working for my group as an intern. I work remotely, though, and hadn't heard how affected by yesterday's tragedy he was. Today at our early morning meeting I heard a little more; he'd known one of the first people killed. He knew the killer. And then, an hour ago, he published this astonishing piece on how he'd immediately thought of Cho, whose 'macabre' offerings in a play writing class prompted his fellow students to recoil.

Naturally, after a tragedy like this (or even, yesterday, while it was still unfolding), everyone asks: "what should we have done differently?" Late at night, when BBC is on the local public radio station, all the talk was of gun control. When I woke up and NPR had taken over, the conversation had changed. I wondered yesterday about whether this would lead to heightened security on college campuses everywhere, and this morning a U.S. security expert was talking about how better training (read: heightened security) can lead to prevention of tragedies like this. He said that he personally has averted more than a dozen mass shootings simply by knowing how to look for individuals who are carrying weapons; they walk and act differently when they're packing a loaded gun.

But there's something else, and while I'd like to get all nature/nurture and blame his parents (if you look at the plays he wrote, you'll see exactly why I write that), it's a little more practical. It's about being more watchful, both at companies where rogue employees have been known to come in and gun down their former co-workers, and at public schools, and at all the other places where people become close enough to know one another and (subsequently) develop the passion required to murder those close acquaintances. It's about being attentive -- not just to whether someone's packing heat but whether or not they're capable of doing so. I don't have an answer to "what should we do when we discover the guy in the next cube is a psychopath?" -- but I think it's an easier question than "how do we regulate guns so only the good guys have access?"

Cho Seung-Hui: Could Virginia Tech faculty have known he would kill? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 17 Apr 2007 16:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Students dead in shooting at Virginia Tech: Will campus security get better?

Sarah Gilbert — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:48:00 EST

It's the deadliest campus shooting in the U.S. ever: 22 33 people, including students, were killed at Virginia Tech University by senior Seung-hui Cho ~~a gunman whose name has not yet been released~~, this morning; one in a dormitory and the rest in a classroom. [Update 9:26 p.m.: 33 are dead, and 15 more are wounded, and rumors among the students are that the shooting was started as an argument between a boyfriend and girlfriend. There was one incident in the dorms, in which two students were killed, and a separate incident in classrooms later.] The gunman too was shot~~, either by police or~~ at his own hands. A dorm lockdown has now been lifted, but campus buildings will be closed and classes cancelled through tomorrow.

President Bush has weighed in, saying he was shocked and saddened, while the university's president, Charles Steger, has released a statement, calling it a "tragedy of monumental proportions." It's certainly monumental; the next two most deadly campus shootings in the U.S. were the 1966 shooting at the University of Texas, in which 17 were killed, and the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, where 14 were killed; both numbers include the gunmen themselves.

While most of the dead were shot in classrooms, which at most public institutions have always been open to the public during class time, it brings a question for me: will this change the way campuses deal with security in dormitories? Certainly, key cards and other security measures have been in use for the past decade or so at most large college and university dorms, but in my experience you can always get a friendly student to hold the door for you -- and, as so many colleges are housed in grand old buildings, they're often difficult to secure fully. Will a tragedy like this put many of our university security offices at a much-heightened level of awareness? Will classrooms soon be put in lockdown? Columbine prompted many high schools to install metal detectors and do random sweeps -- are college classrooms and dormitories the nation wide to follow suit?

Students dead in shooting at Virginia Tech: Will campus security get better? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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