{"id":256173,"date":"2025-09-26T13:19:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T13:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/256173\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T13:19:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T13:19:13","slug":"what-to-know-about-carrying-guns-at-the-state-fair-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/256173\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about carrying guns at the State Fair this year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\"><b>Current protocol<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Guns are not allowed on the fairgrounds. Only current law enforcement and qualified retired officers are permitted to carry firearms, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/public-safety\/2024\/08\/08\/guns-banned-security-increased-at-state-fair-following-last-years-shooting\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">officials said last year while announcing their plans to increase security.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\"><b>What led up to the current protocol<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/public-safety\/2024\/10\/15\/where-the-state-fair-of-texas-shooting-case-stands-one-year-later\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">In October 2023, three people were shot and injured at the fair.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>News Roundups<\/p>\n<p class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__3beff secondaryRoman secondaryRoman-20 text-center text-gray-dark\">Catch up on the day&#8217;s news you need to know.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__8MgJa flex flex-wrap text-gray-dark secondaryRoman secondaryRoman-10 text-center justify-center\">By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0<a class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__lU9-l border-b border-gray-dark hover_border-0 focus_border-0 active_border-0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/help\/terms-of-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__lU9-l border-b border-gray-dark hover_border-0 focus_border-0 active_border-0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/help\/privacy-policy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">In 2024, State Fair officials announced a new safety protocol that banned guns, even for licensed gun holders. They also announced a bag size policy, a redesigned entry and a 24-hour security team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">The gunman in the incident two years ago, Cameron Turner, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawfully carrying a weapon in a prohibited place. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/courts\/2025\/06\/23\/state-fair-gunman-pleads-guilty-to-aggravated-assault-on-eve-of-testimony-in-dallas-trial\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">He was sentenced in June and given 12 years in prison.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/politics\/2024\/08\/29\/ag-ken-paxton-sues-dallas-over-state-fair-of-texas-gun-ban\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Dallas and the State Fair of Texas in August 2024.<\/a> The lawsuit argued that the city and fair are violating state law and the Constitution by changing the fair rules to only allow law enforcement to carry guns into South Dallas\u2019 Fair Park. The fair previously allowed attendees with a valid handgun license to bring a gun as long as it was concealed, but state law doesn\u2019t require Texans to have a permit to carry a firearm in a public place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cThe vast majority of the 277-acre Fair Park in Dallas is not a place where weapons or firearms are prohibited, and those licensed to carry should not be subject arrest upon entering the fair grounds or for entering most of the premises within Fair Park,\u201d the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">However, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/politics\/2025\/06\/30\/dallas-judge-dismisses-ag-ken-paxtons-lawsuit-against-state-fair-of-texas-gun-ban\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dallas County judge dismissed Paxton\u2019s case against the State Fair of Texas\u2019<\/a> gun restrictions. This ruling came in June 2025, just one day after Turner, the gunman, was sentenced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\"><b>Safety at the fair<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">State fair officials say despite the legal drama, the safety of fairgoers is their top priority. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cWe will continue to work with the Dallas Police Department and other public safety and security partners to help keep everyone who visits and works at the State Fair safe,\u201d said Karissa Condoianis, a spokesperson for the State Fair of Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Current protocol Guns are not allowed on the fairgrounds. Only current law enforcement and qualified retired officers are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":256174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,7290,42423,35927,7348,134900,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-256173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-county","11":"tag-guns","12":"tag-state-fair","13":"tag-state-fair-of-texas","14":"tag-state-fair-of-texas-fwddfw","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115270802788624800","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}