Please read this portion of a military questionnaire given to returning vets?

Question

does this frighten you more than the threat of unseen terrorists in some cave?
46. The U.S. government declares a ban on the possession, sale, transportation, and transfer of all non-approved firearms. A 30-day amnesty period is established for these firearms to be turned over to the local authorities. At the end of this period, a number of irregular citizen groups and defiant individuals refuse to turn over their firearms to authority. Consider the following statement: [SD D A SA NO](=strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree, no opinion)


"I would fire upon U.S. citizens who refuse or resist confiscation of firearms banned by the United States government."

DD Form 3206 (Rev 2/96)
JOINT SERVICES TRAINING COMBAT ARMS SURVEY

Answer 1

What is scary is why they would need to know this. Also, what answer they want.

Answer 2

The question doesn't frighten me. It looks like part of a standard psychological analysis.

It tests the "do what you're told" response against the issue of firing on US citizens who are not engaged in hostile action. It also tests whether the soldier would accept the word of their commanding officer without question, in the face of someone arguably exercising a valid constitutional right in a way that does not pose an immediate threat of harm to the solider.

These are useful indicators to understand psychological factors in the applicant.

The potentially scary bit is what the test grader expects the answer should be.

Answer 3

This is not a survey being given to returning vets. It was a survey of Marines at Twenty-nine Palms MCB years ago. The survey was part of one officer's master thesis research.

Proof that it is not a survye of returning vets is that there is no such thing as DOD form 3206. As can be seen from the below link (DOD Forms Management), they only number their forms as high as 2999.

Having pointed that out, I will add that many people have been surprised and scared by the results of that survey, both with this question and others.

Answer 4

Okay - here goes one of the conspiracy theorists. I hate to break it to you, but this is urban legend.

A Colonel returning from Iraq was working on his graduate school thesis paper, on civil disobedience and soldiers recognition of unlawful orders. He submitted this question as part of a voluntary survey to men in his unit.

Don't worry - I am sure there are still some people left over at the Area 51 Alien conspiracy blog you can chat with. Maybe even the Bigfoot blog....

Answer 5

Standard test question.

What frightens me more is the context that you tried to put this in. Rather than trying to skew the view in one direction, put the rest of the answers up there to show that the service members have a variety of choices.

Answer 6

Hard to believe until you link to a pdf document or any other downloadable copy.

Sorry, I don't mean to argue or imply you're lying. But it's a lot to take, as you may agree.

Answer 7

Do you think they might be trying to see if the have weak soldiers that might not be able to refuse and unlawful order? A little presumptuous?

Answer 8

Only if the public stands by and allows this to happen.It has to be a case by case basis. Peace.

Answer 9

In my opinion, those who ordered that question put to soldiers should be tried for treason and hung. It shows what filth has permeated our government... that question was being asked during Clinton's term, maybe before.

Answer 10

Sounds like more of Bush!! He really is a Fascist!