If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege.
Arkansas Supreme Court
1878
[Somewhere along the way people believed the state had the authority to prevent crime. This should be a hot button for freedom loving people. Even the classic restriction on the 1st Amendment, “You can’t falsely shout fire in a crowded theater” is a punishment for doing something wrong. The Washington D.C. gun law mindset equivalent would be to have your jaw wired shut with duct over your mouth when you go into a theater.–Joe]
The fact that “You can’t falsely shout fire in a crowded theater” does not represent a restriction on free speech. It’s a restriction against malicious fraud. It has no bearing on the stating of opinions, beliefs, or facts, or on the manner or scope of dissemination.
Likewise, a law against shooting innocent people is not a restriction on your right to keep and bear arms. It’s a restriction against shooting innocent people. It has no bearing on the manufacture, trade, storage, type, quantity, power, capacity, or carrying of arms.
Hence, use of the “shouting fire in a crowded theater” argument to show that “rights have reasonable restrictions” is in itself a fraud.