This panel was part of the 2025 Fall Conference, Sparking the Revolution: Flintlocks, Gunpowder, and Policy in America’s War for Independence, held in November 2025 in partnership with the Springfield Armory National Historic Site.
Featuring
Jody Madeira, Indiana University
Joyce Malcolm, George Mason University
Alexander Cain, Author and Historian
Panel 2 from our Fall Conference examined the colonial militia as both a fighting force and a constitutional institution, with Cain explaining how New England militias were structured, trained, and legally regulated, while Malcolm traced their foundations to English constitutional traditions that viewed armed citizens as a safeguard against tyranny. Madeira connected this historical framework to modern jurisprudence, showing how courts rely on varying conceptions of childhood when interpreting the Second Amendment.
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