The Pin Shoot

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The son of Clint, a USMC World War II Veteran of Iwo Jima, and Mildred, Richard C. Davis is the original inventor of Soft Concealable Body Armor (Patent #3783449), also known as the modern-day bullet proof vest.

During the late 1960’s Richard was the proud owner of three pizza stores in Detroit, Michigan known as RC’s Pizza. On the evening of June 17, 1969, Richard was attacked and shot during a pizza delivery run. This tragic event became a major turning point in his life and set events in motion that led to the founding of the Pin Shoot and the invention of the modern-day bullet proof vest.

On that fateful night, Richard pulled up to the delivery address, a dark house without a single light on. Standing on the sidewalk, he knew something was off. Rather than approach the front door, he called out, “Did you guys order a pizza?” 

A voice replied out of the darkness, “Yeah, bring it around back.” 

Calmly, he pulled out his .22 revolver from his waistband and concealed it beneath the pizza boxes. He walked around the side of the dark house to find three men standing in a “V” formation. The man in the center was pointing a nickel-plated automatic at his face. Richard’s eyes fixated on the man’s hand. As it tightened around the trigger, Richard fired from under the pizza boxes, striking the assailant in the jaw. A shootout ensued, and Richard emerged victorious with four hits out of six shots.

Richard jokes, “I beat two men in a gunfight. Unfortunately, I was fighting three at the time.”

Two of the three assailants were shot and badly injured, while Richard took two shots himself: one penetrated deep in the back of his thigh, and the other glanced off the bow of his glasses and gashed his temple.

Out of ammo, Richard rushed back to his car and sped off to Mt. Carmel Hospital where he was treated for his gunshot wounds. That night, lying in bed, Richard became consumed with thoughts of police officers who faced similar danger on a daily basis. He reasoned that if they could wear something concealed under their uniform shirt that was light, flexible, and would stop bullets, not only could they survive shooting attacks, but they would also be able to stay in the fight.

“If this works it could save a thousand men in the next ten years.  If it doesn’t, they will die as I will.”

After the incident Richard began researching different materials and found high tenacity nylon (aka ballistic nylon) which was used in flak jackets during the Vietnam era. Flak jackets were never designed to stop direct fire from handguns. Instead, they were used to mitigate the deadly effects of shrapnel from hand grenades and explosions. Flak jackets often included the use of steel plates which were sewn into the garments making them too heavy for everyday wear.

But in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s cops weren’t dying from shrapnel, they were dying primarily from low cost, readily available, small caliber handguns known as Saturday Night Specials. With this realization, Richard set out to see if ballistic nylon would be effective against these lower caliber threats. To his great satisfaction, it worked. He found that the right fabric and layer count was very successful in stopping .22s, .25s, .32s, .38s and even the deadly .357 magnum. The design of his first vests were basic. They consisted of two rectangular panels covering the front and back torso with straps to go over the shoulders and around the sides.

His next challenge was convincing law enforcement to accept the product. He began visiting local departments to show them his product. Would-be customers were quick to reject the idea from disbelief or machismo. He took the skeptics to the range and shot the armor in front of them. Yes, it stopped the bullet