State Fair of Texas opens with a new gun ban after courts reject challenge

The State Fair of Texas opened Friday under a new firearms ban, having withstood weeks of pressure from Republicans who had charged into a public rift with one of the state's most beloved institutions and have spent years championing looser gun laws.

Organizers put the ban in place following a shooting last year that injured three people and sent some fairgoers running and climbing over barriers to flee. By the time thousands of visitors began streaming through the gates in Dallas on Friday — greeted by a roughly five-story tall cowboy statue known as “Big Tex” — the state's highest court had rejected a last-minute appeal from the state's GOP attorney general, who argued the ban violated Texas' permissive gun rights.

Corey McCarrell, whose family was among the first inside the sprawling fairgrounds Friday, expressed disappointment that he couldn't bring his gun to make sure his wife and two children were protected.

“It was a little upsetting,” said McCarrell, who has a license to carry in Texas. “But it didn’t prevent us from coming.”

Millions of visitors each year attend the Texas fair, which is one of the largest in the U.S. and runs through October. When the fair announced the gun ban last month, it drew swift backlash from dozens of Republican legislators and a lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's lawsuit.

Paxton said Friday that he wasn't giving up, even after the Texas Supreme Court's opinion Thursday that criticized the state's argument as lacking.

“I will continue to fight this on the merits to uphold Texans’ ability to defend themselves, which is protected by State law,” he said in a statement.

Tensions over gun laws are recurring in Texas, where a commanding GOP majority in the state Capitol has succeeded in loosening restrictions over the last decade.

Texas allows people to carry a handgun without a license, background check or training. Concealed handguns are also permitted in college classrooms and dorms.

Not long after the fair opened Friday, Janie Rojas and her best friend quickly snatched up one of the fair's famous corn dogs. She said she had been coming to the fair longer than she can remember and was glad to see the ban in place.

“I’d rather nobody carry on the premises with all the kids and everybody here,” she said.

The fair previously allowed attendees with valid handgun licenses to carry their weapon as long as it was concealed, fair officials said. After announcing the ban, the fair noted over 200 uniformed and armed police officers still patrol the fairgrounds each day. Retired law enforcement officers also can still carry firearms.

The State Fair of Texas, a private nonprofit, leases the 277-acre (112-hectare) fairgrounds near downtown Dallas from the city each year for the event. Paxton has argued the fair could not ban firearms because it was acting under the authority of the city. The law, Paxton said, prohibits governmental agencies from banning firearms. But city and fair officials say the fair is not controlled by the city.

In August, a group of Republican lawmakers urged fair organizers to reverse course in a letter that argued the ban made fairgoers less safe. The letter said that while the fair calls itself “a celebration of all things Texas,” the policy change was anything but.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has not spoken publicly about the ban and a spokeswoman did not return a message seeking comment. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, a Republican, said this week that he trusts the fair to make sure visitors are safe.

Rhonda Hines came to the fair Friday with a group of friends wearing T-shirts with “Sister Circle” on the front, made for the occasion. She said she's licensed to carry a gun and believes people should be able to carry at the fair. Still, she wasn't bothered by the ban. “I'm OK either way,” she said.

By midday Friday, Daisi Diaz and her family had already had corn dogs and were starting to work on some fries. Both she and her husband are licensed gun owners, but she said they don't usually carry firearms. She supported the ban at the fair, where last year's attendance put the number of visitors at more than 2 million.

“I was surprised that they didn’t do anything like that before," Diaz said. “I mean, it’s a crowded area.”