Humanitarian activist, author and former Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Jim Garrow has this week made the incredible claim, via Facebook, that Barack Obama is weeding out military officials who say they would not fire on US citizens if required.

The extraordinary claim made by Garrow on Monday is sourced from someone Garrow refers to as “one of America’s foremost military heroes”, bringing many theories to light, such as whether Obama is simply contingency planning, or as some conspiracy theorists would have you believe, Obama is planning an assault on US citizens.

The likelihood is, if the story is indeed true, that Obama perhaps expects a level of civil unrest in his second term, given the contentious nature of his position on gun control, and the often aggressive sentiment whipped up by those such as Alex Jones, who recently told Piers Morgan, “1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms”.

In recent days, we have shown how plans are in the works for the confiscation, rather than simply the limitation of purchase, of firearms. New York Democrats especially have been uneasy with their plans being made public, no doubt for fear of backlash from voters.

Dr. Garrow posted on his Facebook page on Monday at 2:05pm, “I have just been informed by a former senior military leader that Obama is using a new “litmus test” in determining who will stay and who must go in his military leaders. Get ready to explode folks. “The new litmus test of leadership in the military is if they will fire on US citizens or not”. Those who will not are being removed.”

Garrow is described as a respected humanitarian activist who has spent much of his life rescuing infant girls from China – babies who would be lost under the country’s one-child policy. He was also reportedly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 2009. However, Garrow’s credentials are somewhat dented by the fact that his page Facebook is littered with conspiratorial articles, including those titled, “Meet the First Muslim President”, describing Barack Obama, and articles that claim that the President’s birth certificates are “false”.

Earlier this week, the Washington Free Beacon and Foreign Policy both reported on the dismissal of General James Mattis, who has apparently ‘rubbed civilian officials up the wrong way’. The veteran national security correspondent Thomas Ricks wrote, “I’d call him a tough-minded realist, someone who’d rather have tea with you than shoot you,” sparking concerns that Mattis may have been removed for his stance on Obama’s new military policy, although Ricks argues that in reality, it is due to Mattis’s scepticism over a military strike on Iran.

Britons were recently swept into a debate on whether or not police or armed services should be ready to fire on British citizens, whether with rubber bullets or otherwise.

It emerged after the 2011 London Riots, that the Metropolitan Police authorised the deployment of rubber bullets ready for use on London streets.

The Independent reported last year that, “senior officers wanted to fire rubber bullets at rioters in south London last summer – but firearms specialists could not reach the trouble spots in time”