What's Next for the Future of Bulletproofing?

By Jim Richards

If what I've seen during the last three decades is any indicator, bulletproofing is going to continue to become a bigger part of everyday life. This isn’t a prediction about trends in violent crime. I just recognize that, over time, safety measures that were once only for a select few will trickle down and become something for everyone. At one time, seatbelts were only for race cars, and only federal law enforcement drove vehicles with airbags. Now, these are standard safety features for every car that leaves the lot.

Likewise, in the coming years, there are three things we can expect to see:

1. Widespread demand for bulletproof barriers
2. More customization options
3. A bigger focus on building efficiency

1. More Widespread Demand for Bulletproofing

We have every reason to believe bulletproofing will join fire suppression, alarm systems, and emergency lights as standard parts of a building’s life safety systems. We already see this happening in regulations and building codes. When states started to permit medical and recreational cannabis sales, their laws often included minimum security standards for those locations. Michigan required alarm systems, access control, and 24/7 video surveillance of all entrances, exits, and any area in the facility where cannabis was stored or handled. Illinois required medical marijuana dispensaries to install bullet-resistant barriers. 

Similarly, in California, safety and security requirements are becoming more common in building codes. Californians typically lead the rest of the country by 10 or 15 years in such measures, so we expect more state and local governments will begin altering building codes to require more safety features.

This means bulletproofing companies need to find ways to make more security affordable to more organizations. Otherwise, long-standing organizations could be forced to close or reduce their offerings simply because they can’t afford to meet these new safety expectations.

At TSS, we’ve gotten really good at creating designs that address safety and security concerns without breaking budgets. We selectively use different materials in different areas so we don’t waste time and money over-protecting a nook that’s probably never going to be involved in a security incident. 

But, over time, we hope to see the free market continue to do its job: the more demand there is for ballistic materials, the more incentive for smart people to develop better production processes. That will increase quality while lowering costs. 

2. More Customization in Bulletproofing Projects

If more buildings are going to need bulletproofing, then more companies are going to need to produce custom bulletproof barriers. It’s easy to write a law that says “every school building needs a bulletproof entryway.”  But it’s a monumental task to actually get it done. 

There are approximately 100,000 public school buildings in the U.S., and probably another 40,000 private school buildings. As someone who’s designed and installed ballistic barriers in thousands of schools, I can tell you that no two are alike. You can crank bathroom stall doors off an assembly line overseas, but each secure entryway needs to be custom.

And schools make up just one small part of what will need securing. Even in situations you may think of as totally “cookie-cutter,” like corporate-owned gas stations or glass-tower office buildings, we see significant variation from location to location. 

Customization means more than just being able to match paint or wood laminate or supplying custom-cut ballistic glass. Customization has to mean being able to design state-of-the-art ballistic barrier for any building. That starts with being able to make a ballistic door perfectly match the original, but more often than not, it comes down to very precise detail work—for example, creating custom-scribed steel fillers so a modern ballistic barrier checkpoint can seamlessly mesh with historic stonework.

3. Higher Performance Bulletproofing

Until recently, the only kind of “performance” anyone cared about with a ballistic barrier was stopping bullets: how many, and which kind?  Even when the conversation continued further than that, it only went as far as material concerns: Can we reduce weight? Or thickness? Costs? What tradeoffs will we need to make to secure this tricky location while not going over budget?

Meanwhile, construction overall has really committed itself to energy efficiency standards. During the last decade, companies were willing to waive energy standards and make exceptions for ballistic materials. But if every building is going to have some bulletproofing, you can’t just waive the standards for everyone. That’s not a standard.

We’ve seen steadily increasing demand for ballistic materials that perform like traditional building materials, in terms of insulation, R-values, U-values, heat transfer, and so on. No one wants windows and frames that sweat all summer, grow icicles all winter, and run up your bills every month. 

Few players in this industry have put in the effort to meet market demands for higher-performance ballistic materials. Too many decision makers and thought leaders seem to shrug their shoulders and say, “You can stop bullets, or you can stop drafts, but you can’t stop both.”

That just isn’t true. TSS created our first thermal-break window framing system nearly ten years ago. We started offering ballistic insulated glass units more than five years ago, and have steadily expanded since. Just last month, we tested a new set of components to meet higher energy standards. That’s where a lot of our effort is going right now. I hope everyone else starts doing the work to catch up. 

Expanding Ballistic Security Into the Future

Throwing up your hands and deciding you can’t have it all is going to create a crisis in our industry. Besides, it’s foolish. There’s always resistance to change, even when the benefits are pretty obvious: auto manufacturers resisted adopting safety glass for decades, and there was a century of resistance to seatbelts. In certain building sectors, there’s still a lot of resistance to building-wide sprinkler systems for fire suppression.

In the future, more bulletproof products will be integrated into more buildings. And that’s great news. As more builders take ballistic security into account, we’ll get closer to truly offering all-hazards protection everywhere people congregate. And TSS is going to be there to make sure everyone has the knowledge and support they need to get there.

Jim Richards is the CEO and co-founder of Total Security Solutions, an industry leader in the design, fabrication, and installation of custom bulletproof barriers. Jim has decades of experience in the bullet-resistant glass and physical security industries.