An appeals court on Sept. 24 rejected Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s emergency motion seeking to block a ban on guns at the State Fair of Texas.
Three justices on Texas’s 15th Court of Appeals, Scott Brister, Scott Field, and April Farris, said they reviewed the motion and filings from Paxton and the defendants, including the state fair, before siding with the defendants. They did not explain their decision.
“The City of Dallas and the State Fair of Texas cannot nullify state law by banning firearms,” Paxton said on the social media platform X. “I will challenge this decision immediately in the Texas Supreme Court.”
The State Fair of Texas in August announced it was changing its policy regarding firearms. It said all guns would be banned, even if owners have licenses to carry. The only exception is for current or retired law enforcement officers.
Paxton’s office said in a letter to officials that the ban violates a state law that says state or local agencies “may not take any action ... that states or implies that a license holder who is carrying a handgun under the authority of this subchapter is prohibited from entering or remaining on a premises or other place owned or leased by the governmental entity unless license holders are prohibited from carrying a handgun on the premises or other place.”
There are certain places on the 277-acre fairgrounds where weapons may be able to be prohibited, but under the law, the vast majority of the site is not a place where weapons can be banned, according to the missive.
The fair leases land from the city of Dallas.
Paxton has previously said that private nonprofits can ban guns on land leased from cities, but his office recently withdrew the opinion.
A Dallas County judge on Sept. 19 denied Paxton’s request for a temporary injunction against the ban.
In the emergency motion, Paxton had said that he was likely to succeed in the case “because Texas law prohibits municipalities like the City of Dallas from taking any action that would even imply that an individual licensed to carry a gun under state law may not do so on property the municipality owns.”
Lawyers for the state fair said that property owners under state law “have the right to determine rules of conduct for those entering the property absent a statute providing otherwise.” Dallas lawyers said the state fair has exclusive control over the land it leases for the duration of the fair and that the city takes no position on the gun ban.
