The NRA’s Chris Cox has been the victim of some pretty extreme harassment. Not only have they picketed his wife’s place of business–whatever happened to families being off limits?–but they also vandalized his own.

Gun control activists committed what incoming NRA president Oliver North referred to as “civil terrorism” by spraying fake blood all over the steps to Cox’s home.

Now, the woman responsible for that has been fined for her actions.

Patricia Hill, a researcher at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was hit with a $500 fine on Monday for vandalizing Chris Cox’s Virginia home.

Cox, head of the National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action, had fake blood sprayed on the stairs of his home in Alexandria. Hill, arrested by Alexandria Police in January for the incident, was seen by a security guard spraying a “red, gel-like substance,” on the steps, The Washington Post reported.

“The motive here is that Mr. Cox works for the NRA; she doesn’t like that. That’s fine. She can exercise her First Amendment right,” said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Maana Parcham, going on to say Hill crossed the line by committing vandalism.

…

“Mr. and Mrs. Cox have been targeted over the past few months by repeated acts of criminal and unlawful conduct, including having their home vandalized on two occasions,” Cox’s attorney, Elizabeth Locke, said. “These coordinated tactics have crossed the line of civility and human decency.”

Hill, apparently, plans to appeal her $500 fine, which will undoubtedly cost her far more than $500. She’s also likely to lose.

You see, the problem here isn’t her First Amendment rights. She wasn’t arrested for picketing outside Cox’s home. No, she vandalized it. That’s a line that the courts aren’t going to take kindly to you crossing.

Your right to throw a punch ends at my nose. Your right to protest also ends at my property line. Hill and company are legally allowed to protest on sidewalks in accordance with local law. What they’re not allowed to do is to deface anyone’s home. That’s exactly what Hill did, and that’s where the problems really kick off.

She crossed the line. Hard. That’s why she was fined.

I seriously doubt any court, even an anti-gun court, will overturn that conviction on anything but a technicality. And, honestly, everyone should be fine with that. After all, if vandalism in the name of free speech becomes legal, then it’s a two-way street. Everyone gets to do it, not just people Hill likes.

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t help but think she wouldn’t be thrilled to see Shannon Watts get this kind of treatment. She’d be outraged and demanding people’s heads on platters.

Which is fine. I’d actually agree with her.

But it would also be incredibly hypocritical of her to say any such thing since she has engaged in the same behavior and would have opened up the precedence for people who do such things to walk. You see, that’s how is supposed to work. It doesn’t care what your position is. It protects all sides of the argument because that’s how a free society functions.

Vandalizing people’s homes, however, has long been off-limits for good reason.