https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=85398
--- Comment #2 from Richard Biener <rguenth at gcc dot gnu.org> --- This is the simple case of GCC optimizing the access to a constant: <bb 2> [50.00%]: max.0_11 = max; if (max.0_11 > 1) goto <bb 3>; [50.00%] else goto <bb 4>; [50.00%] <bb 3> [25.00%]: _13 = right[0]; left[1] = _13; <bb 4> [50.00%]: return; and we warn for the case of max > 1. Similarly we warn for int bar () { return left[2]; } even if we can't prove that bar() is actually executed. We could change the warning to have a "may be above array bounds" form for your case but that wouldn't handle the bar() case.