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Gun Control Rumor Fuels Conspiracy Theory

By Margeret Roth



	WASHINGTON - Imagine a team of select special

forces members who leave the military but keep their

rank and fatigues for missions. Their job is to mop up

where domestic law enforcement has failed. Then, after

their secret duty is finished, they go back into the military,

but their records show no break in service.

	A rumor, widely circulated and quickly spreading on

computer bulletin boards, has it that such a unit exists. It,

and the surrounding storm of suspicion, stem from a ques-

tion in a naval officer's graduate research survey.

	As the story goes, members of special operations forces,

including Army Rangers and Navy Sea-Air-Land forces,

are being asked if they would fire on American citizens on

American soil. Those who say yes are being assembled into

special teams.

        Despite repeated denials from military officials, the

story has taken on a life of its own, even though the Naval

Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., where the naval

officer is a student, repeatedly has insisted that the ques-

tion is nothing more than research for a master's degree.

	"Total hogwash," said school spokesman John Sanders

of the theory that the officer's question reflects an admin-

istration plan to disarm Americans. "I personally feel [the

questioni is a bit abrupt. However, it is trying to get at a

tough issue: unit cohesiveness, and whether a member un-

derstands a lawful or unlawful order."

        The officer's question, which is like the one in the

rumor, was posed to 300 Marines at Twentynine Palms Ma-

rine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center, Calif., May 10. It

was meant to test their opinion of possible nontraditional

missions, according to a school spokesman.

	The last of 46 questions, it said: "The U.S. government

declares a ban on the possession, saie, transportation and

transfer of all nonsporting firearms. A 30 day amnesty

period is permitted for these firearms to be turned over to

the local authorities. At the end of this peried, a number

of citizen groups refuse to turn over their firearms. Con-

sider the following statement:

        "'I would fire upon U.S. citizens who refuse or resist

confiscation of firearms banned by the U.S. government."'

	The survey calls for one of five responses, ranging from

"strongly disagee" to "no opinion."

	The now-infamous Question 46 purely was hypothetical,

designed to see if the Marines understood the limits of

their constitutional authority, according to Sanders.



issue touches raw political nerve



	But that's not how many have greeted the question. In

the five months since the survey was given, Question 46

has generated a steady hum of suspicion in opinion col-

umns, on radio talk shows and over fax machines and

electronic mail: Does this survey reflect a Clinton adminis-

tration effort to turn service members against their own

countrymen? Is the president preparing to turn them over

to the command of foreign powers?

	The six-page survey explores a variety of nontraditional

missions, domestic and foreign, from security at national

events to substitute teaching to a national emergenry po-

lice force. It also asks for opinions on varioiis possible com-

mand arrangements with U.N. forces.



        Conservative columnist Phyllis Schlafly zeroed in on

Question 46 in a recent column, calling it "a real shock-

er." She said the entire survey should cause people to wor-

ry "about what kinds of missions our U.S. armed services

will be sent on in Bill Clinton's New World Order."

	The question was meant to test whether the Marines,

most of whom were enlisted, understood the principle that

U.S. law prohibits the federal military from becoming in-

volved in domestic law enforcement, Sanders said.

        Efforts to reach the survey's author, Lt. Cmdr. Ernest

G. Cunningham, were unsuccessful. Sanders would not ar-

range an interview with him, but said results of the sur-

vey will be available shortly after it is completed in

December.

	The survey became a public issue when a lance corporal

sent it to a conservative magazine called New American,

said John Manley, a former Marine captain and the public

affairs officer who arranged for Cunningham to assemble

the 300 Marines.



Topic won't die



	It still is being talked about on electronic mail. A recent

visit to Military City Online's activeduty Marine bulletin

board found 24 messages about the survey. Messages also

have been posted recently on the Internet, a worldwide

web of computer systems and bulletin boards. Although

few who wrote messages appeared to have seen the hill

survey, it has conjured fears that the government intends

to use the military as a domestic police force.

	One of the most exotic stories to arise is about the use

of former special forces members. An Internet user identi-

fying himself as Bob called them "triage" teams.

	The degree of detail in his description is suitable for a

novel. Bob said the teams are stationed at Ellsworth Air

Force Base, S.D., using the recently vacated missile silos

for billeting and their headquarters operation.

        Postgraduate school officials are trying to speed the

release of the student's thesis alter it is completed in Decem-

ber, to "short-circuit" the usual proess of publishing it

through the National Technical Information Service, said

spokesman Sanders.

	"It's certainly not our intent to keep this from anyone,"

he said.





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