INDIANAPOLIS-- According to research by Everytown, there have been more than 230 school shootings in America since 2013.
Now, an Indianapolis-based company is hoping to prevent more tragedies with a simple piece of furniture.
"Obviously it's not something you like to think about, having bullet-resistant protection for kids, or students in general, but unfortunately it might be necessary," says Creative Industries' Mike Clark.
The family-owned business has been making bullet-resistant products for decades on Indianapolis' west side, including bullet-resistant windows for schools. But as we've seen all too often, sometimes that's not enough.
"You can have all the metal detectors you want, but if somebody's crazy or just has that one bad day, and they've got a gun, they're going to get in. They'll run through a metal detector firing, unfortunately," Clark said.
It was until Clark's wife, Robin, a teacher herself, approached him with an idea.
"She happened to just bring up, 'You know, what if you made a bullet-resistant table for me to have in my classroom,' and we did it," Clark said.
To the naked eye, one would never know these desks could stop a bullet. Thanks to testing, employees at Creative Industries have proved it.
"It's lined on both the front and the top with bullet resistant fiber glass. It will stop, the one that [Robin] has in her room will stop a .44 magnum handgun," says Clark.
The desks do not look intimidating, and are light enough for a teacher to move on their own.
"God forbid somebody came roaming the hallways with a gun. They could run to her class, and they could either toss the table on its side and stand behind it, or they could flip it up on its end and push it against the door," explained Clark.
While a school shooting is a scenario none of us like to imagine, these desks may be necessary in classrooms across the country.
"It's the worst nightmare for anybody that someone would run through the halls of a school, have an active shooting situation. I would certainly like to think if a shooter came into my wife's school, she and her fellow teachers and her students would at least have a little bit of a fighting chance to be protected," says Clark.
Clark's wife, Robin, is the only teacher with one of the desks so far, but Creative Industries is ready to start making more. The desks will cost between $700 and $800 to make.
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