Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton has suffered a legal defeat in his fight against the State Fair of Texas to prevent a gun ban on the fairgrounds.
Paxton filed a lawsuit last month demanding that the Dallas-based State Fair lift its ban after fair management ignored a warning. The ban, announced weeks earlier, was put in place after three people were shot and injured at the fair last year. The 22-year-old suspect claimed he acted in “self-defense.”
“Neither the City of Dallas nor the State Fair of Texas can violate Texans’ right to self-defense,” Paxton said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed. “I warned fifteen days ago that I would take them to court if they did not stop their unlawful conduct, and I will do so now.”
Dallas County District Court Judge Emily Tobolowsky on Thursday denied Paxton’s request for a temporary restraining order to lift the ban, but ruled that as a private, nonprofit organization, the fair had the right to ban guns even though state law allows Texans to carry weapons on state-owned property.
Chip Somodevilla
Although the fairgrounds are owned by the city of Dallas, city officials said they had nothing to do with the fair and that organizers had full control of the park where the fair is held each year due to a 25-year contract, The Texas Tribune reported.
The 27-day fair is scheduled to begin next week. The ban is likely to come into force unless further legal action is taken. The lawsuit is still pending.
Newsweek reached out to Paxton’s office via email Thursday for comment.
Although it was unclear at the time of publication whether Paxton intended to appeal the preliminary injunction decision, Austin American statesman reported that Paxton “will likely seek to overturn Tobolowsky’s order in the state’s newly created 15th Circuit Court of Appeals,” which began hearing the cases this month.
Several gun control advocates celebrated the blocking of the injunction on social media.
“This is good news,” wrote Juliette Kayyem, a national security expert and former Obama administration official, in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Private and nonprofit organizations should be allowed to deviate from the rules on open carry depending on the context and situation.”
“A family gathering seems like a pretty good place to draw the line,” she added. “This was a reasonable gun policy. Paxton knew that, too. Now he’s just trolling.”
“Another defeat for criminal Ken Paxton,” wrote @joe_jo4, an X user who boasts in his bio of being “blocked by Ken Paxton four times.” “A win for Texans at the State Fair. I wouldn’t have gone this year if they had allowed gun traffic.”
“Ken Paxton’s assault on gun rights has been dismissed in court,” wrote @Sasquatch4eva. “Good.”
