Word: armored
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...away from fresco or egg tempera to the relatively new and more pliant medium of oil paint. Drag a loaded brush over the textured surface of a canvas, and a whole range of sensual effects are possible. The feathery plush of a fur collar, the glint of light on armor, the nap of rough cloth - they could all be suggested by oil in ways that tempera couldn't quite...
Still, some manufacturers, like Florida-based Point Blank Body Armor Inc., make it their policy to provide gear only to licensed security, law-enforcement, corrections and military personnel. "We certainly would endorse and support any efforts to pass laws with tighter controls or limit body armor falling in the hands of people who should not have it," says Michael Foreman, senior vice president of sales for Point Blank and a 35-year veteran of the Orange County Sheriff's Department. But the fact is, laws against civilian use and purchase are sparse and often difficult to enforce...
Almost as long as humans have used offensive weapons, they've thought defensively as well. The very first types of armor were animal hides that cushioned the blows of clubs. Chinese warriors in the 11th century B.C. clad themselves in rhinoceros skin; ancient Greek warriors carried round, flat shields of bronze, reinforced with layers of hide and wax. In medieval Europe, knights and lords rode to battle in chain mail, a heavy, fantastically expensive armor forged from thousands of tiny links of steel. By the mid-14th century, advances in technology - namely, the high-velocity crossbow and longbow - necessitated steel...
...first versions of armor to protect against gunshots appeared in the 18th century, made of layers of cotton and sufficient enough to protect against rudimentary firearms. In the 1870s, Australian outlaw Ned Kelly famously crafted entire suits from steel for himself and his gang members for the final, ill-fated standoff with police that led to his capture. During the Korean War of the 1950s, U.S. forces used armor made of fiberglass, nylon and heat-treated aluminum. Today an array of protective gear is available including the soft ballistic vests favored by police and S.W.A.T. team members, often made...
...Body armor can be highly effective when worn properly; some analysts cite its use as standard equipment for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan as reasons why troop fatalities in those conflicts have remained at historically low levels (even as a larger proportion of soldiers return home injured or maimed by wounds that previously would have killed them). But the same evolution that has likely saved thousands of lives is now raising the question of whether tighter regulation would save even more. When laws vary so widely from place to place and the civilian purchase of body armor becomes more...