Chattanooga, TN – In October 2020, First Line Furniture tested their bulletproof table at the Government Training Institute in Barnwell, SC.
First Line Furniture’s bulletproof products are being made in Chattanooga at Office Furniture Warehouse.
According to News Channel 9, the company was formed by St. Louis natives after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school mass shooting.
The founders implemented NIJ level 3 material into the table for the purpose of being used as a shield amidst gunfire.
It appears that the tables flip and lock in place so that students can crouch down behind them during an active shooter event.
Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences principle Jim Boles was quoted explaining the great addition the tables would make for enhanced safety.
Regardless, it seems that no schools will be receiving this bulletproof furniture after all.
News 9 wrote that a lack of recourses from schools during the pandemic and closures has redirected the company to government entities.
“The downside is nobody planned for COVID, so they’re so budget strapped to compensate for COVID-19,” said John Jerman of Office Furniture Warehouse.
According to John Jerman, schools won’t have the funding for the bulletproof tables, but government buildings will.
“Their budgets are able to make purchases of this level versus the school level,” Jerman said.
An example of a potential building with the budget for bulletproof tables is a new $189.1 million federal courthouse in Chattanooga that may be getting the construction greenlight from Congress.
Although we strongly wish mass shootings would not transpire, Office Furniture Warehouse hopes that the bulletproof tables can serve as another line of protection.
“The world is the way it is, and if things do happen, we hope these tables are in place somewhere where it saves lives,” Jerman said.
