N.Y. Military Law § 240: Military parades and organizations by unauthorized bodies prohibited

§ 240. Military parades and organizations by unauthorized bodies

prohibited. 1. No body of men other than the organized militia and the

armed forces of the United States except such independent military

organizations as were on the twenty-third day of April, eighteen

eighty-three and now are in existence and such other organizations as

may be formed under the provisions of this chapter, shall associate

themselves together as a military company or other unit or parade in

public with firearms in any city or town of this state.

2. No municipal corporation shall raise or appropriate any money

toward arming or equipping, uniforming or in any other way supporting,

sustaining or providing drill rooms or armories for any such body of

men.

3. No body of men shall be granted a certificate of incorporation

under any corporate name which shall mislead, or tend to mislead, any

person into believing that such corporation is connected with or

attached to the organized militia or any unit thereof in any capacity or

way whatsoever. In case any such certificate has been heretofore or may

hereafter be granted, which in the judgment of the adjutant general,

misleads or tends to mislead anyone into believing that such corporation

is so connected or attached in any capacity or way whatsoever, the

adjutant general shall notify such corporation, in writing, to forthwith

discontinue the use of its said corporate name and forthwith take the

necessary steps to change its name pursuant to the statute in such case

made and provided, to some name not so calculated to mislead. In the

event such proceedings are not forthwith taken and completed within six

months from the service of said notice, the attorney general shall bring

an action to procure a judgment vacating or annulling the act of

incorporation of such corporation, or any act renewing the corporation,

or continuing its corporate existence or annulling the existence of such

corporation.

4. Associations wholly composed of soldiers honorably discharged from

the service of the United States, or members of the order of Sons of

Veterans, may parade in public with firearms on Memorial day, or on May

first, known as Dewey day, or upon the reception of any unit of the

organized militia or of the armed forces of the United States returning

from duty or from the active military service of the United States, and

for the purpose of escort duty at the burial of deceased members or

former members of the organized militia or the armed forces of the

United States. Students in educational institutions where military

science is a prescribed part of the course of instruction, and cadet

organizations composed of youths under eighteen years of age, under

responsible instructors, may, with the consent of the adjutant general,

drill and parade with firearms in public under the superintendence of

their instructors.

5. Any person violating any provision of subdivisions one through four

of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

6. (a) Any person who assembles or conspires to assemble with one or

more persons as a paramilitary organization and has knowledge of its

purpose is guilty of a class C felony when he, with one or more other

members of such organization, practices with a military weapon in order

to further the purpose of such organization.

(b) As used in this subdivision: (i) "paramilitary organization" means

an organization of two or more persons who engage or conspire to engage

in military instruction or training in warfare or sabotage for the

purpose of unlawfully causing physical injury to any person or

unlawfully damaging the property of any person.

(ii) "Military weapon" means any device capable of discharging a

projectile by means of a gas generated from an explosive compound, or

any explosive or incendiary bomb, grenade, rocket, missile, or similar

device or launching device therefor; or any device that simulates any of

the foregoing.

7. This section shall not be construed to prevent any organization

authorized to do so by law from parading with firearms, nor to prevent

parades by the organized militia of any other state.