Photo by Everytown of advocates calling for gun violence prevention measures at Dallas City Hall.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the State Fair of Texas for banning firearms at its annual event. The State Fair of Texas, which has historically allowed those with concealed-carry licenses to have firearms, made a policy change following a shooting at the fair last year that injured three individuals. Despite security concerns, the Attorney General’s Office claims that the State of Texas Fair is in violation of state law by prohibiting firearms on government property.
The law in question prohibits political subdivisions from preemptively banning firearms from locations not already covered by state law such as schools. The initial court ruling rejected the Office of the Attorney General’s arguments, stating that the State of Texas Fair is not a political subdivision, rather it is an independent non-profit and allowed to create its own policies – a conclusion that the Office of the Attorney General actually already came to in a 2016 opinion that happened to be withdrawn after the filing of this lawsuit. The Office of the Attorney General is now challenging the decision at the Texas Supreme Court.
The lawsuit is one of the latest challenges to the regulation of firearms in public spaces – a can of worms opened by the US Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision, which struck down some of New York City’s regulation of firearms in densely populated public areas. The decision did so on the basis of “historical understanding,” asserting that firearm regulation had to accord with historical examples. The implementation of “historical understanding” has proved to be more difficult in practice, causing mass confusion in the lower courts.
Data show that more guns in public spaces lead to more violent encounters. Despite this, several states, including Texas, have deregulated firearms in public spaces. The deregulation of firearms in public spaces does not satisfy the Bruen decision and in the mass shooting era, it creates greater opportunities for tragedies to occur.