Because "paramilitary" has a strict legal definition[0] in addition the commonly used informal definition of "organized armed group that's not a government sanc

Because "paramilitary" has a strict legal definition[0] in addition the commonly used informal definition of "organized armed group that's not a government sanctioned military power". The California State Military Reserve[1], for example, is a paramilitary organization under that legal definition. About two dozen states have similar paramilitary state defense forces[2], all of which are distinct from both federal military units and the state's own National Guard units. [0] https://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule4 https://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule4 [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Military_Reserve http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Military_Reser... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_defense_force http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_defense_force