Employee shoots at CEO with an AK-47

From about 12 feet away, the employee took aim at the windshield and unloaded three shots that bashed the windshield but didn’t penetrate it. After the loud demonstration, Trent Kimball, the company’s president and CEO, walked away without a scratch. Talk about standing behind your product, literally.



Last Tuesday, Kimball decided he wanted to attempt to quite detractors of the company’s products and create the video, which was planned, shot and edited the same day. The video, which a fan posted on YouTube on Thursday, has gone viral with close to 2 million hits. The company’s post has about 20,000 hits.



While the ballistic windshield seems to almost shatter upon impact, Jason Forston, the company’s executive vice president, said that the glass could absorb about 50 shots from an AK-47 from that range before any bullets would penetrate the glass.



The company, which supplies armored vehicles, was surprised at the video’s success and has seen an jump in the number of inquiries since it was released, Forston said. While most of the company’s orders are exported, it has seen a nearly 25 to 30 percent jump in domestic sales in the last three years. Forston attributes that jump to the increasing violence along the U.S./Mexico border and the rocky economy.



Trying to capitalize on the production’s success, another demonstration video that features Kimball is in the works, said Forston. But no details were released.