People who use the "fire in a crowded theater" metaphor clearly don't know where it came from. It was coined by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in Schenck v. United States.[1] He ruled that it was constitutional to send socialists to prison for distributing leaflets against the draft in WWI.

In the same way that dentists agree that sugared gum is bad for your teeth, economists agree that price gouging laws make everyone worse off.[2] For a concrete example of how price gouging laws led to shortages, read Michael Munger.[3]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenck_v._United_States#The_C...

2. http://www.igmchicago.org/surveys/price-gouging

3. https://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2007/Mungergouging....