"Shouting fire in a crowded theater" is a popular
metaphor for speech or actions made for the principal purpose of creating panic. The phrase is a paraphrasing of Justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.'s
opinion in the
United States Supreme Court case
Schenck v. United States in 1919, which held that the defendant's speech in opposition to the
draft during
World War I was not protected
free speech under the
First Amendment of the
United States Constitution.
The paraphrasing differs from Holmes's original wording in that it typically does not include the word
falsely, while also adding the word "crowded" to describe the theatre. The original wording used in Holmes's opinion ("falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic") highlights that speech that is dangerous
and false is not protected, as opposed to speech that is dangerous but also true.
None of our rights are absolute, as demonstrated above and that goes for gun rights too. It is unlawful to own a machine gun, it is unlawful to own a howitzer. Why is that?
Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Then let's take guns out of the hands of those people who kill people.