Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is once again suing the city of Dallas over what he says are unlawful handgun bans on public property — this time at Fair Park’s Music Hall and the Majestic Theatre.
The lawsuits allege the venues are unlawfully posting signs banning licensed handgun owners from carrying their weapons onto the government-owned properties. The Majestic Theatre is a division of the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, and the Music Hall is located in city-owned Fair Park and has been leased by the nonprofit DSM Management Group since 2009.
Images attached to the court documents show signs telling the public guns are prohibited on the premises, along with photos of security guards using metal detectors at the entrance to the Majestic.
“The law is clear,” Paxton said in a press release Thursday. “Cities like Dallas have no authority to override state statutes that enable license holders to lawfully carry their handguns and protect themselves from potential threats. I will always do everything in my power to defend Texans’ gun rights from cities that would strip us of our legal rights.”
Paxton’s office is filing the suits in Travis County, according to copies of the original petitions in both suits attached to the release. The city of Dallas declined to comment due to the pending litigation.
A similar lawsuit over a policy banning nearly all guns at the State Fair of Texas last year is ongoing in Dallas County. The rule, which doesn’t apply to peace officers, went into place after three people were injured in a shooting at the fair in 2023.
The State Fair argued fair organizers are not a government entity, but a private nonprofit, operating independently from the city. Dallas argued the city played no role in the implementation of the fair’s gun ban.
A district court, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court all denied Paxton’s request for a temporary injunction to prevent fair organizers from implementing the rule before the fair began.
Attorneys for the state, the city of Dallas and the State Fair are awaiting a ruling on their motions for summary judgment — a request for a ruling in favor of one party and against another without a full trial — after a hearing in February.
Meanwhile, at least two bills in the Texas Legislature would directly address the legal issues raised in the State Fair case. A bill by Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, would make it illegal to prohibit licensed handgun owners from carrying firearms on government-owned property, including private contractors like the State Fair that have control over the property under a lease. The bill was referred to a committee in March.
Another by Sen. Bob Hall, R-Rockwall, would also prohibit a contractor using government-owned or leased property from banning guns on the property. That bill was approved by a Senate committee this week.
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