It's a Chair. No, It's a Bulletproof Vest

An enterprising attorney has created a portable chair that converts to a bullet-proof vest, for use in schools and entertainment venues. Aaron Ansel came up with the idea for the CoverMeSeat following the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. "I just thought, is there any sort of technology-based solution that could have kept people safe? There has to be something," he tells Newsweek. The chair, which looks like a stadium seat, has a quick-release mechanism that allows the user to unfold it, place it over the head, and cinch it at the waist, similar to an airplane life vest. A YouTube video shows it stopping bullets and there's a fitted compartment for optional ballistic plates.

Ansel has been criticized by those who see him as capitalizing on mass shootings, but he says the device is a practical solution to a problem that shows no sign of going away. Indeed, hundreds have died in mass shootings since the Las Vegas massacre and the US has suffered 57 times more school shootings than all other industrialized nations combined since 2009, CNN reports. Ansel says his typical buyer isn't the gun enthusiast. Rather, he's marketing the product to teachers and concert-goers. "It's as apolitical as a fire extinguisher," he tells Newsweek. (More inventions stories.)