So, once in a blue moon I hear some guys who don't know much about bullet resistant vests say that if you get shot in the vest that you will be incapacitated and or on the ground dead from blunt force trauma. While this myth is still pervasive among some individuals it's simply a false claim made through ignorance and not facts and is not based on real world evidence.
Myth #1: Getting shot in a bullet resistant vest will incapacitate you or give you lethal backface deformation damage regardless if the vest was rated to stop that particular round.
The Facts: Right off the bat I want to say that there is no evidence for this claim. Actually, all the real world data and evidence points to the contrary. That’s why the NIJ ballistics standard exists which puts a cap on how much backface is tolerable against the human body excluding the head. Body armor has saved countless lives and there are plenty of people who have been shot and live to tell about it.
The NIJ allows a depth of BFD of ≤ 44mm which is the safe zone but anything > 44mm is potentially lethal or will cause serious trauma. Just read the Section and Application Guide to Body Armor pp. 20 and 26 from the NIJ [1]. This is their standard for backface deformation based on what the U.S Army research center concluded is tolerable against the upper body excluding the head. And this is perhaps the only standard that the NIJ and military both abide by today [2] when testing their body armor vests. Other than that they both conduct very different ballistic tests for their armor systems due to different threat situations and encounters. So for those of you who don’t know, a surplus IOTV vest is NOT NIJ certified or even compliant.
The NIJ has analyzed [3] blunt force damage > 44mm in the past and the severity of damage it could cause. If they couldn't accurately pinpoint a safe threshold in the first place for a BFD depth limit which is ≤ 44mm then this data couldn’t even exist so think about it.
Myth #2: There are even better ballistic standards than the NIJ one used in body armor vests that pose even stricter requirements for backface deformation like the VPAM European Standard which only allows a BFD limit of 25mm for body armor.
The Facts: Such a statement is a half-truth and misrepresentation of what VPAM rated products are actually out there. There is no ‘soft armor VPAM rated vest’ on the market, period. Generally, you’ll find the VPAM rating on a couple of new generation hard rifle plates and ballistic helmets. Speaking of ballistic helmets, this is where the VPAM standard is mainly being utilized with today; having a strict BFD standard for ballistic helmets with mitigating as much blunt force trauma to the head. This makes plenty of sense. Still, though, there are barely a handful of them on the market right now [4].
Anyway, with such strict standards the VPAM has there are very, very few ballistic products available that have been certified with that performance standard at the present moment. Not to mention, they are extremely hard to find and some can be quite pricey [5]! It’s also one of MANY different ballistic standards for body armor throughout the world. Russia has their GOST armor standard and China has their GA141 armor standard as examples.
I would also note that there are other countries that have adopted an NIJ compliant standard in conjunction with their own ballistic standards and, yes, even the VPAM standard like Finland and Denmark. To be more specific: Varusteleka [6] of Finland and Protection Group Denmark [7] of Denmark supply or manufacture NIJ compliant body armor from their countries. Varusteleka is more of a military surplus store but indeed supplies it from a manufacturer in Finland. Clearly, they must have found our own NIJ standards to be quite useful and effective or else they wouldn’t have adopted it.
In Conclusion: If you believe any of these myths about soft armor vests then you might as well believe the same for hard ceramic plate armor also. Hard ceramic rifle plate armor creates backface deformation from being shot by rifle calibers the same way soft armor does from handgun calibers. In the end, the NIJ protocols have been carefully thought out and scrutinized and have saved many lives over the years since its implementation.
Yes, it’ll hurt a good amount to get shot in a bullet resistant vest by a caliber the vest is rated to stop but you won’t be dead and will still probably be moving about which is a good thing. No matter what NIJ rated vest or plate you get it will do the job it’s intended for without BFD being a problem. So, stop worrying about these myths and enjoy yourselves by watching this YouTube video [8] of a guy shooting himself in a bullet resistant vest to get an even better picture of what I’m talking about.
