After the Mormons stormed a private newspaper and smashed the presses for printing bad press about them. And raised a militia... And tried to use said militia to break Joseph Smith out of jail. There's two sides to that story. The states side is preserved in law. The Mormons weren't just sitting around reading their Bibles.
I don't agree with the law lasting as long as it did. But that story is basically a who's who miserable religious fundamentalist who fucked off and founded Utah.
Edit - I was wrong. Smith was killed in Illinois. I'd encourage you to read up on it. It's a crazy story.
As a guy who dabbles a lot in black powder guns..... My guess is that it was very rare to make it through a full cylinder without a malfunction