OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
2:07 PM – Friday, September 27, 2024
Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, has sworn to uphold Texans’ constitutional right to bear firearms on property that is either owned or leased by the government in their state.
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On Thursday night, the Texas Supreme Court decided not to overturn the state fair’s ban on firearms. Paxton’s (R-Texas.) office then filed a lawsuit, alleging that by forbidding the majority of people from bringing firearms onto public property, the city and the fair are in violation of state law.
A Dallas County court turned down the request for an injunction to stop the ban’s implementation. The Supreme Court refrained from intervening, as did the Fifteenth Court of Appeals.
“Texans have a right to lawfully carry, and the City of Dallas has no authority to contract their rights away to a private entity,” Paxton said on Friday. “This case is not over. I will continue to fight this on the merits to uphold Texans’ ability to defend themselves, which is protected by state law. While Texas clearly prohibits this type of gun ban, I will be working with the Legislature this session to protect law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights on public property.”
The state’s motion did not address whether a private entity, such as the State Fair of Texas, has the right to forbid visitors from carrying firearms, according to Justice Jimmy Blalock’s opinion in the decision refusing to overturn the Fair’s gun policy.
“Whether Texans have a legal right to carry handguns at a mass public event of this nature is not a question that should ever be in doubt. Law-abiding handgun owners in Texas know that there are certain places where they may not carry their weapon. They need to know—with maximum clarity—whether the State Fair is one of those places. Yet the state’s filings do not even attempt to answer that question,” Blalock wrote. “This Court cannot possibly order the State Fair to allow handguns to be carried at this year’s Fair when the party seeking that relief does not even argue that Texas law obligates the Fair to do so.”
In Dallas County district court, a full trial on the merits of the state’s case is set for June.
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