But now your hands are tired

nowyoukno:

bulletproof vests weren’t invented by the army, or even the police. They’re the result of a brainwave by a beleaguered pizza delivery man in 1969. Meet the average Joe who saved lives with a single bright idea.

It was July 21, 1969, the night after Apollo 11 headed for the moon, and Richard Davis, a former marine turned pizza shop owner, was held up while making a delivery in a rough part of Detroit. His attackers had guns but so did he and, in the shootout that followed, he wounded two of them and was hit twice himself.

The event set him thinking about a way to give people, particularly police officers who found themselves in the same situation, a second chance. With a roll of nylon and the straps from his car’s seat belts he set about creating his first design for body armour that could be concealed beneath clothes.

(via iknewitsgonnahappen)