Are you for freedom or not?
On the one hand, the gouger provides a service/good that might not otherwise be available.
On the other hand, the beauty of the free market - supply and demand - always wins out. The gouger may make a buck screwing his neighbors, but when he gets robbed - or worse - by a surly customer, his neighbors might be less inclined to help him out.
Not to mention the fact that businesses/individuals known for gouging will find themselves black-listed when the market returns to normal.
There is no free lunch. Either for the gouger - or his patrons.
One more thing; take the guy who sells his stock at the same price as before the “event” - even though supply has dropped and demand is up. He now becomes in essence, a “whole-saler”. His patrons will over-buy, then sell their surplus at a profit. Seem fair to him?
“The gouger may make a buck screwing his neighbors”
I’d normally say there’s no such thing as gouging, but it is possible to screw customers, in a manner if speaking, if you knowingly take advantage of their hysteria over certain future events which you know to be a fantasy. Then it’s somewhat akin to a con game, though far short of criminal. After all, information is never equal throughout the marketplace, and we’re always trying to get one up on the other guy by better predicting the future in trade.
Getting back at the seller later for capitalizing on your ignorance is another form of hysteria. It’s not their fault you were wrong, and if like I said it was knowingly on their part that they “screwed” you it was really your fault for being stupid. We are responsible for our own stupidity.
Then again, in a free market sellers are responsible for their customers’ irrational grudges. No getting around it if they want to punish you for their stupidity, and I guess you gotta take the bad with the good.