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American militia movement is a term used by law enforcement and security analysts to refer to a number of private organizations that include paramilitary or similar elements. These groups may refer to themselves as militia , unorganized militia, [ 1 ] and constitutional militia . [ 2 ]
Presser v. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252 (1886), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that held, "Unless restrained by their own constitutions, state legislatures may enact statutes to control and regulate all organizations, drilling, and parading of military bodies and associations except those which are authorized by the militia laws of the United States."
While members of some such groups believe such militias are approved or endorsed by law, particularly by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, they are in no way public authorities or organized military or National Guard units of the country or their state. They are private citizens, in voluntary association, and self-funded.
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The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identified 334 militia groups at their peak in 2011. It identified 276 in 2015, up from 202 in 2014. [ 1 ] In 2016, the SPLC identified a total of 165 armed militia groups within the United States.
Laws authorizing the state governments to officially make privately organized militias part of the state's official military force vary; Nevada, for example, allows the governor to "issue licenses to bodies of persons to organize, drill and bear arms as volunteer military companies or volunteer military organizations," [82] whereas South ...
A private military company (PMC) or private military and security company (PMSC) is a private company providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their personnel as " security contractors " or " private military contractors ".
This act declared that "a well-ordered and well-disciplined militia is essentially necessary to the safety, peace and prosperity of this kingdom," and that the current militia laws for the regulation of the militia were defective and ineffectual. Influenced by this act, in 1775 Timothy Pickering created "An Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia ...