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.
Last modified: February 3, 2019