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50 Years Ago This/Last Week (why you can't own an M1 Carbine)

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50 years ago on a hot, humid summer night just like tonight.

My ex-FIL was National Guard deployed to put down the riots.  He said it was scarier than his tour in Vietnam although the old man has been known to exaggerate.

Ecclesiastes 3:15: What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Newark_riots

The 1967 Newark riots were a major civil disturbance that occurred in the city of Newark, New Jersey between July 12 and July 17, 1967. The four days of rioting, looting, and destruction left 26 dead and hundreds injured.

Deaths: 26

Injuries: 727

Arrested: 1,500

By the sixth day, riots, looting, violence, and destruction ultimately left a total of 16 civilians, 8 suspects, a police officer, and a firefighter dead; 353 civilians, 214 suspects, 67 police officers, 55 firefighters, and 38 military personnel injured; and 689 civilians and 811 suspects arrested. Property damage exceeded $10 million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Plainfield_riots

The Plainfield riots were a series of racially charged violent disturbances that occurred in Plainfield, New Jersey during the summer of 1967, which mirrored the 1967 Newark riots in nearby Newark, New Jersey.

Middlesex Arms Theft

That same night in nearby Middlesex an arms factory was broken into and 46 automatic weapons were stolen. The Plainfield Machine Company was a small manufacturing company owned by William Haas and William Stork that, among other things, produced M1 carbines for the civilian market. The stolen guns were passed out to the men on the streets of Plainfield that very night. The police were anxious because of the large number of guns now on the streets and the Plainfield Fire Department Station was under constant gunfire for five hours. The bullet holes in the brick facade of the building remain to this day. Finally, New Jersey National Guardsmen, in armored personnel carriers relieved the station.

Police tried to arrange a truce and have residents turn in the stolen carbines. Black residents felt that having the guns in the community kept the police at bay and that they now had power over the police. When none of the stolen firearms were returned, the area was cordoned off and 300 heavily armed New Jersey State Police and National Guardsmen started a house-to-house search for the stolen weapons. After about an hour and a half, with 66 homes searched, the operation was called off. The police felt that since Governor Hughes had declared a State of Emergency, no search warrants were needed.

Officer John Gleason, Death by Shopping Cart

Later that evening a white police officer, John Gleason, was manning a checkpoint. Members of the Pagan motorcycle gang entered the area and a confrontation between a large group of young black men and the white members of the Pagan motorcycle gang was brewing. Police Officer John Gleason placed himself between the two groups and the Pagan motorcycle gang left. The remaining crowd refused to disperse and Officer Gleason became surrounded by the crowd which began to threaten him and close in on him. Officer Gleason was in fear of his life and eventually fired a shot at a young man and wounded him. When the officer tried to leave the area to get help, he was overtaken by a mob and was beaten with a steel grocery store cart, stomped and eventually brutally shot and killed with his own service revolver.

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As someone who was born after the riots (only by a few years), it's hard to imagine violence/rioting of that scale happening today.

Not sure if race relations are better or if the economy is better, but I hope rioting like that is a thing of the past.

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It is happening. Not big in NJ but look at the rioting going on around the country.

We had a small riot here in town around 1974 - they tried to burn down the police station. My best friend lived right next door and the PD was fine he was sitting on his front step with his shotgun. He said he'd protect HQ and his house without prejudice.

When 911 hit, in Paterson, (city just next to where I live), had Muslims partying in the streets threatening riots in rejoice. The only thing that didn't happen is the firing of AKs into the sky. That was when we all stocked up on ammo. Thank goodness it was tamed down.....

It can happen and unless the govt can chill everyone in this country instead of promoting violence, it WILL happen. Just a matter of when. Most likely in the worse cities of NJ first... those will be the worse of the worse because they already have bad crime rates there.

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I always wondered why they banned the M1 Carbine by name here in NJ. We had a similar riot in Detroit in 1967 and that was the beginning of the end of the city!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Detroit_riot

The 1967 Detroit riot, also known as the 12th Street riot, was a violent public disorder that turned into a civil disturbance in Detroit, Michigan. It began in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 23,1967. The precipitating event was a police raid of an unlicensed, after-hours bar then known as a blind pig, just north of the corner of 12th Street (today Rosa Parks Boulevard) and Clairmount Avenue on the city's Near West Side. Police confrontations with patrons and observers on the street evolved into one of the deadliest and most destructive riots in the history of the United States, lasting five days and surpassing the violence and property destruction of Detroit's 1943 race riot.

To help end the disturbance, Governor George W. Romney ordered the Michigan Army National Guard into Detroit, and President Lyndon B. Johnson sent in both the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. The result was 43 dead, 1,189 injured, over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed. The scale of the riot was surpassed in the United States only by the 1863 New York City draft riots during the American Civil War,[2] and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The riot was prominently featured in the news media, with live television coverage, extensive newspaper reporting, and extensive stories in Time and Life magazines. The staff of the Detroit Free Press won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for general local reporting for its coverage.

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5 of my friends and I were at a 2nd floor pool hall overlooking Front St -2nd St and Madison ave.  when the owner suddenly said he was closing up and to get out now! We all said WTF? and he told us to look outside. Now this was a few days into the Newark riots so we kinda knew there was some tension but never expected it to come to Plainfield. We got outta there PDQ!

 Sad to say it was the beginning of the end for Plainfield.  Never came back to "the Queen City" as it was once called to this day. 

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If anyone thinks this can't happen again they'd better take a hard look at Venezuela. Same play, different script. And they're not in the last act yet.

It most certainly can.

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That was interesting, thanks. To echo someone else's comment about Plainfield never rising again, ain't that the truth! That could be said for most of these cities and large towns that had riots though.

I feel zero sympathy for rioters, less than zero for the activists that stir them up... but my heart breaks for the people who lost their businesses to looting or arson, the employees who worked at those businesses who end up unemployed, and the decent people who live in those areas who watch helplessly as their neighborhoods are destroyed by a bunch of young idiots with poor impulse control.

When the local businesses close... life gets just a little harder for everyone who still lives there... and for those who were fortunate enough to be homeowners there, they watch their property values tank too. The short-term toll in lives and injuries are, of course, horrific... but the long-term consequences of burnt out areas that never recover are pretty bad too. Very sad. And sadder still to see some of that angst repeated so recently - Ferguson, Baltimore, etc.

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Same rioting destroyed Asbury Park. This is the exact reason the M1 Carbine is banned by name in NJ. Which just shows where the legislators heads are. I would much rather have a M1 Garand during battle than an M1 Carbine. I would bet most who voted to add the M1 Carbine thought it also fired .30-06 not a pistol round.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

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