2019 New York Laws
MIL - Military
Article 11 - Privileges, Prohibitions and Penalties
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.