Two fathers' creation of a bulletproof backpack to protect their children from school shootings is drawing flak — and brisk Internet sales.

Massachusetts creator Joe Curran said he developed the $175 "My Child's Pack" to give a "proactive defense" to his kids after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

"We started getting fed up with seeing all the school shootings out there," Curran said today.

When Curran began researching shooting-response policies for his two children's suburban Boston schools, he was alarmed that students were told to hide among the coats in their classroom coat racks.

"That's what gave birth to My Child's Pack — they're telling the kids to hide amongst the coats," the father said. "We were very worried about our kids going to school without any type of protection against a gunman."

Curran said he and another dad hit on the idea of installing a lightweight bulletproof panel in the backpack padding because many children at schools carry their packs throughout the day.

Both he and co-creator Mike Pelonzi have experience as law enforcement firearm instructors; Pelonzi also owns a gun shop.

"It gives the kids something to put in between them and the threat. They can hold it over their head ... or chest," he said. "We just want to give our kids a little bit of peace of mind when they're in school that if something does happen they have a proactive defensive action they can take."

When the dads launched online sales Aug. 10, a surge of 25,000 hits crashed Mychildspack.com, Curran said. He couldn't say how many backpacks have been sold, but they're currently back-ordered.

"We're getting them out as fast as we can," Curran said, adding that the manufacturer has increased production.

His company, MJ Safety Solutions, has a You Tube video showing Curran's 13-year-old daughter, Amanda, using a backpack to shield her head and chest.

In a separate scene, the video shows the backpack pinned to a target stand stopping a 9mm handgun slug.

The firm says the ballistic shield in the backpack, which comes in a range of colors, adds only 20 ounces — as much as a bottle of water or two notebooks.

The video also shows a photograph of Columbine killers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, accompanied by the sound of the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song Four Dead in Ohio. It warns there have been 328 school shootings in North America involving death or injury since Columbine.

But the bulletproof backpack is also taking flack.

An online poll on Denver's KOA-AM radio today showed 77 percent of listeners wouldn't buy the backpack.

For some, Curran said, the product has become a pawn in the emotional gun-control debate spawned by deadly school rampages.

"You have the NRA, Second Amendment guys saying: 'You don't need a backpack, just arm the kids,'" he said, referring to Internet blogs. "The other side says we should ban all guns across the country and that will solve the problem."

"The way I look at it, this backpack is nothing different than a fire extinguisher or a smoke detector. It's a tool to have in case something happens," he said.

gathrighta@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5486