tonight on "nightline," school bus hostage. a 6-year-old kidnapped in a

deadly school bus attack and held hostage in an underground bunker. tonight, the massive effort to bring him home. as the controversy escalates over hard knocks on the football field, a business is growing. can new technology really help prevent dangerous concussions? a "nightline" investigation. juicy, ground, and made of buffalo chicken wings? it's not your grandma's recipe. the meatball guy serves up new spins on the old school classic. keep it right here, america.

from new york city, this is "nightline" with terry moran. >> hello, everyone. thanks for joining us. tonight, a high stakes rescue mission is under way. police are staking out the

underground bunker where a 6-year-old boy is being held hostage after being kidnapped from his ride home from school. it was a deadly attack in broad daylight, one raising some chilling questions about how safe children really are on the school bus. abc's jim avila brings us this report. >> just had a bus driver shot. possibly deceased. >> reporter: that was bad enough. an innocent driver shot to death. as police rushed toward his school bus in midland, atlanta, they found much worse. this bright yellow rolling sanctuary for a group of elementary school kids had become a horrific crime scene. the armed suspect police would learn had escaped with a 6-year-old boy in his hands, heading to an underground bunker on his property, holding the boy prisoner, eight feet below ground in an earthen cave

stocked with supplies that could last weeks. the young witnesses telling authorities it was a raid on their school bus by a mean man determined to take a child hostage. >> he started telling him he needed a kid because of something about the law coming after him. >> reporter: police sources identify the suspect as 65-year-old jimmy lee dykes, a man who has been in trouble with the law before on charges he fired a gun at a neighbor. the boy is on medication and is said to have special needs. >> at this time, we have no reason to believe that the child has been harmed. >> reporter: police have been in contact with the gunman using a pvc pipe to communicate through. and late today made this heartbreaking request. >> pray. pray. j >> reporter: we are told that this could be a slow process. >> we've got an old saying to

use delay in order to save time. the more patient approach they take, the less likely they are to make mistakes, to move the slowly, to get it right, to communicate properly, and slowly and gently unravel this. >> reporter: he says rushing the bunker is the very last resort, especially in a case where the hostage taker may have planned the crime in advance. >> as long as they're talking, as long as they have some sort of dialogue and he's indicated that he's open to talking, then they know that there's the possibility of getting him to come out and getting the child out. >> reporter: a frightening position for any parent to be in. school buses all too often are not the sanctuary they are supposed to be. from bullies onboard a junior high bus last june, taunting the school bus matron. >> you're cruel. >> this angry parent threatening students he said bullied his daughter. >> this is my daughter and i will [ bleep ]. >> reporter: students put in

danger by the person assigned to care for them. this driver in new york was so intoxicated the children asked her to stop the bus. >> the turn up this road. stop. you've got to stop. you've got to stop. you're not okay. and i know it. just turn it off, please. >> no. >> turn the bus off! >> no! you can't get off the bus! >> reporter: then there is this investigation done late last year by our affiliate in baltimore, abc 2. catching on tape hundreds of speeding buses. others running red lights. >> we took this video of these tickets, we took it to bus stops and showed it to parents as they stood there with their children. they were stunned, they were alarmed. they couldn't believe that once they put their kids on the bus that these things could happen. >> reporter: it was happening in cincinnati too where our affiliate bought a radar gun. >> it scares me for the sake of our children. >> reporter: scary for good

reason. kids aren't required to wear seat belts in most school buses. this ohio bus with an interior camera captured what can happen in an accident. seat belts aren't required because despite these frightening incidents and this week's school bus hostage taking, an average of only six students a year die on school buses. safer on the bus than in any parents' car. but little comfort to the parents of the 6-year-old held in a bunker tonight by a deranged gunman who attacked what should be a safe haven. >> if i were talking to the parents, i would say i know you're scared. i know you're horrified. and i know that right now you feel completely alone and it's almost overwhelming. so i'm going to ask you to work with us and let patience be your shield as opposed to your enemy. >> reporter: parents who now like police can only be patient and pray. for "nightline," i'm jim avila in washington. >> pray. thanks to jim for that.

well, just ahead, football. can new technology protect football players' brains from dangerous hits on the field? the "nightline" investigation. my wife takes centrum silver. i've been on the fence about it. then i read an article about a study that looked at the long term health benefits of taking multivitamins. they used centrum silver for the study... so i guess my wife was right. [ male announcer ] centrum. always your most complete.

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letting him play football." president obama echoed a growing fear shared by many parents across the country. it's given rise to an industry aimed at softening those blows. but can new technology really prevent dangerous concussions? here's a "nightline" investigation. >> are you ready for some football? are you ready for some concussions? head injuries and their potential lifelong consequences are the biggest threat to america's gridiron heroes. concern is mounting at every level. the nfl, colleges, even high school. >> there's definitely that fear every single time he goes out there and plays. we wonder. >> jennifer's son tyler is one of the stars of the woodbridge warriors. >> he wants to play. and as a mom, we merely want to put bubble wrap around him and protect him forever, but that's not going to happen. >> concussions are the most common injury among high school

football players. so jennifer, president of the warriors booster club, decided to do something. she raised money to buy the team helmet inserts made by unequalled technologies for added protection. it's all part of a sort of cottage industry that sprung up to cater to worried parents. unequalled technology is one of the highest profiled players in this new market, described its product explicitly as concussion reduction technology, or crt. it's a liner, a strip of composite material, including bulletproof kev lar. you stick it inside the helmet. >> i kornt tell you what's in it. it works. >> that's james harrison of the pittsburgh steelers, one of the hardest hitting guys in the nfl. unequal technology's sales pitch rests heavily on his endorsement and other pro players. >> almost like having novocain. you don't actually feel the pain. you just feel pressure. >> rob vito is the founder and

ceo of unequal technology. >> these athletes need to take control of their own safety. >> he says they work with scientists to create a military grade composite material. >> we always want to stand behind our products. >> and you're actually standing behind your product. >> that can protect athletes from all sorts of injuries from head to toe. he's eager to show us how strong it is. >> harder! >> the guy would have you believe it's his magical material. there's nothing magical about it. >> dave halstead tests helmets, lots of helmets. for so many parents whose sons want to play football, they are looking for that device, that add-on, that helmet that will protect their children. >> correct. >> is it out there? >> it is not. absolutely it is not. >> here's the problem. the modern football helmet

already offers excellent protection against direct linear hits. football without helmets would be catastrophic. >> all right. my severity index is 2,909. >> he's dead. >> he's dead. he's got a skull fracture. >> but doctors believe it's caused by sheering rotational forces, when the head snaps back and swerves around on the neck and the brain slams against the inside of the skull. there is no proof that products like unequal technology strips protect against those injuries. halstead's testing did show that the unequal strips can reduce the severity of linear direct impacts from some angles, but not from others. but even rob vito acknowledges he cannot prove that reduces the risk of concussions. my question is on concussions. and for parents out there, does this product reduce the risk of concussion? >> no.

we can't make that claim at this point. it's too early on. >> so you say concussion reduction technology. is that what you're doing? >> our claim is that we help reduce the possibility of head injury. that's our claim. we never mention the word concussion. >> concussion reduction technology. >> exactly. that's the name of the product. >> don't you think calling it concussion reduction technology, if it doesn't reduce concussions or you can't make that claim scientifically, is wrong? >> there may be some confusion. there's a product called muscle milk that claims no milk. >> but you're claiming that it reduces concussions, or that's the name of your product. >> uh-huh. >> it doesn't. >> we're not claiming that. >> even though your product is called concussion reduction technology. >> correct. but we're not claiming that. one is a name and one is a claim. and our claim is that we help reduce the possibility of head

injury. >> after our interview, unequal technology sent us what they say will be their new packaging for their product. the words concussion reduction technology have been removed. for so many football players, the risk is real. players and parents want answers. but right now, they aren't out there. >> that magic bullet, that if you just do this, you continue to play the way you are and you're immune from injury. it just doesn't work. >> head injuries in football, a huge issue going forward. well, next up, from spicy pork to buffalo chicken, mouth watering recipes from the chef out to prove that meatballs aren't just about beef. he way. this is the age of knowing what you're made of. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain;

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some people like them on spaghetti, others shoved inside a bun. no matter what, it seems like everyone's got the perfect recipe for the perfect meatball. there's one place where the humble meatball has become high art. we meet chef daniel holzman to see for ourselves at the meatball shop right here in brooklyn, new york. >> every single culture celebrates meatballs, so everybody has a meatball from their childhood. whether you're from southeast

asia or, you know, italy or northern europe or africa, you have meatballs in your culture and you've had meatballs in your past. so that's exciting. you say meatballs and people smile. it's incredible. you're smiling right now. ladies and gentlemen, we are here at the meatball shop. welcome. we're make buffalo chicken meatballs for our first plate. we've got ground chicken, preferably chicken thighs. we have a couple sticks of celery. the idea is we're going to try to get all the flavors of a classic buffalo chicken wing into meatball form. so i've got a frying pan and a little bit of heat. i'm just going to throw about a quarter of a stick of butter with about a quarter cup of frank's red hot, depending on how spicy you like it. so i've got about a pound of ground chicken, two stalks of celery. i'm going to crack one egg inside which will help hold it

all together. a a healthy teaspoon of salt. bread crumbs. frank's red hot right over the top. i'm going to give it a mix with my hands and we'll go ahead and roll them and roast them. i'm going to pop them in the oven. i also kind of felt like there was something rude about how much people were charging for food. there was really great food for a lot of money, and not a lot of really great food at an affordable price. we have a really simple blue cheese dressing that we make at the restaurant. one part sour cream, one part mayonnaise, one part crumbled blue cheese, two parts milk to thin it out, a tablespoon of salt, and red wine vinegar to taste. so we'll see if we have enough. i'm just going to give it a whisk and bring it together and we have our meatballs ready from the oven. i like to add a little bit of extra hot sauce just over the top. and there you have our buffalo chicken wing mini meatballs.

if i heard of a restaurant called the meatball shop, i wouldn't expect much. i would think of a meatball shop. it sounds like a place where you go to the counter and get a meatball. i feel like here you get a lot more than that and then you get your bill and it's a lot less than you would have paid and you think wow, that was awesome. we're here for our second plate, our spicy pork meatballs. it is the simplest recipe that we make at the restaurant. we have about two pounds of ground pork. we have five ingredients. for this recipe, we use some fresh bread diced up, about a quarter cup of bread crumbs. two teaspoons of salt. we use hot pickled cherry peppers. they're not terribly spicy. but they give it a really great briny flavor. two eggs. i'm going to go ahead and give them a mix. and i'm going to pop them in the oven for about 17 minutes at 375 degrees. i'm extremely proud of the fact that i am able to keep it

simple. because i think that's the hardest thing to do. some of the greatest things in life are the simple things. and you can be best in class whether you're a meatball or whatever you want to make. all right, our meatballs are ready. the spicy meat sauce, which is my favorite thing, a healthy grating of parmesan cheese. i think that's a great treat. spicy pork meatballs with spicy meat sauce. >> i'll take one of each. it's time now for tonight's closing argument. today former congresswoman gaby giffords made a forceful and emotional plea to the senate to consider new gun control regulations. giffords spoke slowly, carefully, still recovering from the infamous shooting that ended her congressional career two years earlier. >> too many children are dying. too many children. we must do something.

it will be hard, but the time is now. you must act. >> giffords and her husband mark kelly argued for stronger regulations on guns, specifically for universal background checks on all gun purchases. so we wanted to ask you, what do you think? is it time to take action about gun control? should there be background checks on all gun sales, including those at gun shows? let us know what you think on the "nightline" facebook page or tweet us @nightline. thanks for watching abc news. we hope you check in with "good morning america." they're working while you're sleeping. we'll see you here tomorrow.