The State Fair is planning to ban guns, again. Here’s what to know

The “most Texan place on Earth” is once again planning to prohibit guns — even as Attorney General Ken Paxton continues to challenge the State Fair’s ban on weapons in court. 

The State Fair of Texas told The Dallas Morning News that it plans on banning firearms for the third year in a row, pending an appeals decision in a lawsuit filed by Paxton. 

The fair first banned firearms in 2024, quickly leading to backlash and legal action. The ban was enacted after a 2023 shooting at the State Fair, when a gunman wounded three visitors. The fair hadn’t seen a shooting since 1988, but quickly pivoted to buck a decadeslong precedent allowing lawful gun owners to bring their firearms onto the grounds. 

Paxton sued both the fair and the City of Dallas, which leases Fair Park to the nonprofit, but was met with pushback from the courts. District Judge Emily Tobolowsky dismissed the case in 2025, and both the appellate court and Texas Supreme Court denied Paxton’s motion for emergency relief.  

As Paxton continues to appeal the decision, the fair is still planning to keep guns out of the fairgrounds. Paxton argued that Texans “have a right to defend themselves,” and that any firearm ban on public property is unlawful. The Attorney General’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the ban.

Texas Gun Rights Foundation President Chris McNutt criticized the ban as an ineffective remedy to a dangerous situation. 

“It only turns peaceable Texans into sitting ducks, stripping them of the ability to protect themselves and their families,” he wrote in a statement to The News, noting that the shooter in the 2023 incident was not a licensed gun owner.

But Jeffrey Tillotson, a local attorney representing the City of Dallas in the case, said the State Fair’s ban was about more than protecting fair attendees — it’s about preserving the independence of private entities to conduct business as they see fit. He said the measure is a matter of “personal freedom” for State Fair leadership to make their own decisions on event operation and logistics. 

“This is a good principle and a good law that you want, which is that private entities and private people on their own property can decide who enters and who doesn’t,” he said. 

Tillotson agreed to give Dallas a steep discount for his services to defend this principle. He’s charging the city just $895 per hour, according to city records — down from his normal $2,000-per-hour rate. Tillotson said the discount was a way to be there for the community and the city.

“That was the right and good thing to do,” he said. 

Jim Harris, an attorney for the State Fair of Texas, said he expects the 15th District Court to release its decision before the fair begins in September. 

Tillotson said he feels optimistic about the case’s chances on appeal — specifically because Paxton wrote a 2016 legal opinion that appears to support the city’s stance on private entities that lease public land to prohibit guns. While state law prohibits a government entity from banning guns on public land, Tillotson successfully argued that a private entity — like the State Fair — that leases public land can legally enact such a ban.

“He said, so long as you have complete control of the premises, yeah, you can turn people down,” Tillotson said. “If, like State Fair, where there is no control exercised by the city of any meaningful kind, then you’re basically a private citizen and do as you want.”

Paxton withdrew his opinion shortly after filing the lawsuit in 2024. 

A gun owner himself, Tillotson said he believes Paxton is trying to protect gun rights in the state. This case isn’t about politics, he said, but about preserving and protecting freedom at all levels.  

“Gun rights is a broad issue on which honest, good people can disagree,” he said. “I think the attorney general is simply just doing his job.”