Former police officer Brian Irish potato was shot 15 times at the Sikh temple massacre in Wisconsin in 2012.

Now he works for Michigan-based Armor Limited and sells the same make of bulletproof vest that saved his life.

But simply to cops. He doesn't think civilians should have them.

He said that criminals who article of clothing bulletproof vests "change the whole dynamic" for cops, who are trained to shoot at the torso, considering it's a large target with vital organs.

Cops going up against an armored criminal "would have to shoot him in the head," said Murphy. The caput is a more hard target to hitting.

White potato ought to know. He's riddled with scars from the 2012 shooting.

"I was shot ten times in the appendages," said Murphy. He pulled upwardly his sleeves to reveal bullet-pocked arms. One of his fingertips was shot off.

He said that three of the shots hit his torso and would have been fatal, but they were stopped by the Armor Express vest. He was exhibiting the production at the SHOT Show, the annual briefing of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Isaac Hatch, co-founder of HWI Inc. in Centennial, Colorado, was showing a different sort of body armor. It'due south a suit called the Aristocracy Defender -- riot armor with breast and groin plates, arm guards, warrior boots and a visor helmet. Hatch said he'south received 1,000 pre-orders from various police departments.

Orders for his armor accept been on the ascension since the riots of Baltimore, Chicago and Ferguson, Missouri, Hatch said. Unlike Armor Express, it'southward not even bullet-resistant but designed for anarchism-style weapons like bricks and bottles.

Hatch dons the armor and tests information technology with assist of his brother, co-founder Clinton Hatch, who beats him with a bat. "My brother's no Barry Bonds, but he swings pretty hard," said Hatch.

Armor Limited and the Hatch brothers have never sold a suit to a civilian. But they could, if they wanted to.

Cops take been concerned most criminals wearing bulletproof armor ever since the infamous Los Angeles bank robbery of 1997, when two armored gunmen turned North Hollywood in a war zone. Outgunned cops broke into a gun store to try and get firearms that could pierce the gunmen'southward torso armor. They killed i of them by shooting him in the head. The other died in custody.

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Federal law prohibits people convicted of fierce crimes from possessing body armor. But local armor laws are relatively loose and vary widely around the land. New York state, including New York Metropolis with its restrictive gun laws, allows civilians to wear bullet-resistant vests and then long as they're not committing a violent felony.

Connecticut is probably the about restrictive country for bulletproof vests; information technology doesn't allow convicted felons to wearable them. Also, Connecticut does not allow online sales of torso armor to civilians without a contiguous transaction betwixt the buyer and the seller.

But more often than not speaking, civilians in well-nigh states are free to buy bulletproof vests from online retailers like Armor Protection Technologies and BulletSafe. Prices range from $299 to $525.

"It'south very much wide open," said Rafael Hernandez, co-owner of Armor Protection Technologies in Weston, Florida, who just started shipping vests concluding year and says there are near no regulations. "In that location's a huge market out there."

Tom Nardone, president of BulletSafe, which sells a bulletproof baseball game cap for $129, called the Connecticut police force "misguided."

"Restricting their purchase seems backwards to me," he said. "Would you restrict the sale of motorcycle helmets? Fire extinguishers?"

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Mike Faw, a sometime police officer from N Carolina who is now a marketing executive for the laser sight company Crimson Trace, believes that civilians have a correct to article of clothing bulletproof vests. He wears one when he rides his motorcycle to his chore.

"The vests with plates provide great protection when riding a motorcycle, snowmobile, jet ski or when in a gunkhole," Faw said. "If there's a crash, the survival rate goes up dramatically for vest wearers. That impact with mirrors, handlebars, etc., is less traumatic when a vest is worn."

Faw said they're besides good to clothing at gun ranges because "y'all never know who could exist shooting at the lane next to y'all." Even when shooting with family unit and friends, he said, "accidents exercise happen."

"There are no valid reasons to prevent the average citizen from owning a belong," Faw said.

CNNMoney (Las Vegas) First published February 10, 2016: 8:26 AM ET