Categorizing the three suspects in the May 29 shooting of a Cortez police officer has been a common hobby for the past three weeks.

Law enforcement, political junkies and curious citizens wonder who Alan "Monte" Pilon of Dove Creek, Jason Wayne McVean of Durango and Robert Matthew Mason of Durango are affiliated with, if anybody.

Are they militia? Paramilitary? Survivalists? Patriots? Constitutionalists? Right-wing Christian zealots? Millennialists?

Those are some intriguing categories to be throwing around, and perhaps deserve some kind of definition. Those definitions, however, often vary, depending on the source.

In the information battle, the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., is one of the leading groups in tracking patriot and militia groups in the United States. The SPLC’s Militia Task Force has identified 523 patriot groups – nine in Colorado and 13 in New Mexico.

The other side is not so well-armed, mediawise, tending to keep a lower profile. Gerald Carroll is the editor of an Indiana-based magazine called Media Bypass, which calls itself the watchdog of the watchdog groups.

"It has been my experience (SPLC specialists) have their facts completely wrong," Carroll said. "A lot of reporters get sucked in."

Militia groups believe the media often unjustly link them to heinous acts, such as the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the Cortez incident.

Jim Strode, commander of the New Mexico Militia, said he’d arrest the suspects if he could. "They’re not patriots."

One thing neither side disputes is that Colorado, New Mexico and the Southwest United States in general have historically been a hotbed for anti-government unrest.

With the help of these "experts" and a few solid hours scouring the Internet, here’s a primer on groups that profess some sort of distrust of the U.S. government.

Militia – These groups are the armed units of various political groups, patriots and constitutionalists among them.

Although the word has a negative connotation to some, militia people say they have a very serious agenda: protecting their communities from insurgents, which can include governments and officials who abuse positions of power.

There is a tendency to misunderstand what a militia is, militia group spokesmen said.

"A militia is a militia only when it’s defending the community," said Jon Roland of the Constitution Society in a phone call from Sacramento, Calif. "It ceases to be a militia when it’s no longer doing so."

Militia groups are legal in Colorado. A bill to ban militias in Colorado failed in the Legislature this year.

A couple of paramilitary groups apparently train near Denver. The Colorado First Light Infantry says on its Web site that it trains periodically just outside Boulder. It says on its site to ignore "Colorado’s unconstitutional paramilitary law."

"Train, train, train! We may need you, and you’re no good to anyone if you’re dumb on the field."

The Libertarian party believes in the importance of militias. Common-law courts – those not government-sanctioned – often consider militias as their enforcement arm.

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center said the number of militia groups has decreased in the last three years, but those remaining are more militant, and many have moved underground.

Patriots – There are many Internet sites for patriot groups. Generally, patriots are conservative and Christian. And even the SPLC acknowledges that most patriots are law-abiding.

The Patriot Knowledge Base site claims that God’s true divine law is scoffed at by government and media, and largely ignored by most U.S. citizens. It claims the goal of the U.S. government is to establish a one-world government; patriots are emphatically against the United Nations.

Pilon allegedly has been linked to a group called the Four Corners Patriot Movement based in Farmington.

Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane said that name has come up so much in investigations that he believes it has to exist. But so far, nothing concrete on the group has surfaced.

Roland said the group is a myth. He said the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks militia and hate groups, is way off base.

"I’d say the SPLC is just pulling something out of the air on that one. Their research is far from diligent," Roland said. "Our intelligence reports don’t show this group exists."

Potok, of the SPLC, said he’s "quite certain" the Four Corners Patriots exist, and that Pilon participated in one of their paramilitary training sessions in 1996. Potok said Pilon was involved with them, but is not necessarily a member.

Potok characterized the Four Corners Patriots as a "shadowy, underground group." It has at least 25 active members who don’t really have a headquarters but come together to carry out training sessions.

Also according to the SPLC, there is a Common Law Court based in San Juan County, N.M.

Constitutionalists – The U.S. Constitution has been the country’s basis of law since 1789. However, it has been perverted by court decisions through the years, constitutionalists say.

The basis of militia groups comes from the Second Amendment to the Constitution, one of 10 amendments known as the Bill of Rights:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

This amendment is widely quoted by militia groups and the National Rifle Association. It is their basis for arguing against gun-control laws.

Roland, of the Constitution Society, said his group forms the political philosophy of the militia movement. Since unconstitutional statutes exist, enforcement of those represents a deprivation of civil rights, and that is a crime, he said.

Constitutional Convention attendees Thomas Jefferson and George Mason are venerated and widely quoted by constitutionalists.

Survivalists – Almost everyone agrees that Pilon, McVean and Mason fit into this group.

These are people who gear themselves toward living off the land and surviving disasters, natural and man-made. This could be anything from a nuclear bomb to a backcountry skiing accident in a remote area. The more you know about your environment, the better your chance of survival, they say.

Important survival skills include finding direction, making shelter, finding water and food, using first aid and parasurvival, which includes the need to know how to use a firearm.

There is a North American Survival site on the Internet that preaches that its members’ sworn duty is to protect each other in times of need or distress.

Roland said survivalists tend to be individualistic, while militia groups band together to defend a community.

"Most of us in the constitution movement would argue the family is too small a group to be protectable," Roland said.

The Internet site goes into detail about caches, reconnaissance and rallying points, all techniques the three apparently used.

Hate groups – The most newsworthy of these groups is skinheads, but many others abound in the dark recesses of civilization (and the Internet).

Militia and patriot groups take care to avoid being linked to such groups. Hate groups and true militia detest each other, Roland said.

But watchdog groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center attempt to make such links.

Potok said the Four Corners Patriots have trained with members of the Christian Identity, a white supremacist religious group that believes "Jews are literally satanic, and blacks aren’t even human," Potok said.

Millennialists – The year 2000 is near, and to some it means the end of civilization is also close. Citing various biblical scriptures, some think the end of this 1,000-year period signifies the beginning of an all-out race war.

According to a friend of McVean’s, quoted in a police arrest affidavit, the three subscribed to that view. Possibly it explains why they had supplies cached in the desert.