Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes speaks to the press in the Cannon Rotunda on January 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. Rhodes, was among the roughly 1,500 criminal defendants who were charged in the January 6 attacks on the Capitol and pardoned by President Donald Trump. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
Nevada state lawmakers are considering legislation designed to crack down on paramilitary organizing and activities.
Assembly Bill 119 is sponsored by Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager but was presented on Wednesday to the chamber’s judiciary committee by Assemblymember Erica Roth. The bill authorizes the state attorney general to investigate paramilitary activities and seek from a court injunctive relief against them. It also establishes the right to seek civil penalties if harmed by such activities.
The idea is to give the state the power to intervene before any disruptive and illegal activities occur, said Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, which has worked on anti-paramilitary legislation across the country.
Criminal penalties for paramilitary activity already exist in state law but are “a blunt tool” that can only hold people accountable after the fact, she told lawmakers. “This seeks more useful mechanisms for public safety.”
McCord and Roth emphasized the bill is “ideologically neutral” and focuses on actions rather than the beliefs held by such groups.
Actions, according to the bill language, include public patrolling while armed with a deadly weapon, substantial interference with government operations while armed with a deadly weapon, assuming functions of local or federal law enforcement agents, and preventing or attempting to interfere with the legal rights of others.
“In recent years we have witnessed a troubling rise in extremist ideologies and anti-government sentiments across the country,” said Roth. “The spread of violent rhetoric and increasing visibility of armed groups have created a climate of fear and intimidation in some communities.”
McCord, a professor at Georgetown Law, said courts have long interpreted “well regulated militia” in the Second Amendment as meaning regulated by the government, meaning it is already illegal to organize into a paramilitary group. Forty-eight states have prohibitions against paramilitaries written into their constitutions, and more than half have laws criminalizing paramilitary activities. Nevada has both.
Beyond Bundys
Republicans on the committee questioned whether the bill would apply to groups of ranchers or church members who might train together to protect their properties or congregations.
McCord pointed out that Nevada already regulates security services, which would likely apply in those hypotheticals, and that their activities would not fall under the new state law unless the intent was paramilitary in nature.
“It would be very difficult to accidentally fall within this,” she added.
Roth said Nevada has “real-life examples” highlighting “the difference between protection of personal property and anti-government activity.”
“Let’s say there’s an unnamed rancher in the state of Nevada who is just patrolling their property and making sure it’s safe. That’s fine. That does not fall under this chapter,” she said. “ If that same rancher, who may or may not have actually existed, starts to form a militia for the purpose of anti-government work, then that falls under this category.”
In 2014, a longstanding dispute over illegal cattle grazing in Bunkerville came to a head when rancher Cliven Bundy led an armed standoff between Bureau of Land Management agents. Bundy was aided by members of far-right militia groups, most prominently from the Oath Keepers, which was founded in Las Vegas in 2009.
In 2016, Bundy’s son Ammon also tapped into paramilitary groups when he carried out an armed takeover of a wildlife refuge in Oregon. (Oregon passed an anti-paramilitary bill similar to what’s now being considered in Nevada. That law went into effect last year.)
More recently, in Nevada, unfounded conspiracy theories about election fraud have led to an increase in armed paramilitary activities. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his involvement with the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, though his 18-year sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump the day he took office.
Roth also noted that “links between militia groups and officials” in Nevada has also been documented.
Across the country reports of armed vigilantes appearing at public demonstrations, school board meetings and drag brunches have increased and come with the threat of violence.