During 1968 revisions to the United States Army Field Manuals there was a move by the United States Secretary of the Army to eliminate the description of the bayonet as a crowd control weapon ; however , senior Army leadership resisted the change . A study conducted that year by the Human Resources Research Organization concluded that the bayonet " is highly valuable as a riot control weapon " with a survey of personnel involved in military peacekeeping operations reporting its most valuable attribute was its psychological effect on a crowd . A compromise was ultimately reached whereby use of the bayonet was permitted in cases of violent mobs but not in routine civil operations . Two years later , in the protests that led to the Kent State shootings of 1970 , two persons were injured after being bayoneted by soldiers of the Ohio National Guard
Kent State shootings
Kent State shootings
Use of bayonets for crowd control