The State Fair of Texas is an annual celebration of corn dogs, deep-fried delights and a five-story cowboy named Big Tex.

DALLAS (AP) — The State Fair of Texas is laying down a new rule before millions of visitors flock through the gates for corn dogs, deep-fried delights and a friendly wave from a five-story cowboy named Big Tex: No guns allowed.

But that decision by fair organizers — which comes after a shooting last year on the 277-acre fairgrounds in the heart of Dallas — has drawn outrage from Republican lawmakers, who in recent years have proudly expanded gun rights in Texas. On Wednesday, the state’s attorney general threatened a lawsuit unless the fair reversed course.

“Dallas has fifteen days to fix the issue,” said Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, “otherwise I will see them in court.”

Tensions over where and how gun owners can carry firearms in public are frequent in Texas, but the standoff with one of the state’s most beloved institutions has moved the fight onto unusual turf. The fair has not backed down since cowboy hat-wearing organizers announced the new policy at a news conference last week.

The fair, which reopens in September and lasts for nearly a month, dates back to 1886. In addition to a maze of midway games, car shows and the Texas Star Ferris wheel — one of the tallest in the U.S. — the fairgrounds are also home to the annual college football rivalry between the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma. And after Big Tex, the towering cowboy that greets fairgoers, went up in flames in 2012 due to an electrical short, the fair mascot was met with great fanfare upon its return.

  • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
    205·
    3 months ago

    Fun fact:

    Back in the wild west, it was common to “check your guns” apon entering almost every single town. Yes, you needed protection from bandits and outlaws, but entering you left them with the sheriff and picked them up leaving.

    • Kaboom@reddthat.com
      61·
      3 months ago

      Funnily enough, usually it was to keep black people and Asian people from being armed while turning a blind eye to armed white people. Gun control is racist.

      • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
        38·
        3 months ago

        That I don’t know, but I do know that black people made up a huge portion of the cowboys in the wild west. 25% or more. After the Civil War freed slaves rode west. Some settled and built homes, many more became cowboys.

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
          7·
          3 months ago

          Black people who worked with cattle were called “cowboys.” White people who worked with cattle were called “cowhands.”

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        26·
        3 months ago

        Gun control is racist.

        Louder for those in the back. Volumes have been written on the subject, and the information is a only a quick search away.

        Many of you are familiar with Reagan, as Governor of California, banning open carry because of the Black Panthers. Yeah, that gets tossed around a good bit, but the racism inherent in historical and modern gun laws goes far deeper.

        • Seleni@lemmy.world
          3·
          3 months ago

          Honestly? More education (and possibly more exposure) and less fetishization, although I’m not quite sure how to achieve the second one.

          Back when my parents were in school, schools had shooting teams (my high school apparently had an award-winning women’s team), and my dad even brought a gun to school once to show to a teacher (it was an older gun and the teacher was a gun collector). They spent the whole of lunch period talking about how cool that old gun of grandpa’s was.

          Because back then a gun was just a tool, and one more people had access to, since a lot of people were still out on the farm and such. My dad learned from a young age that guns were dangerous, and how to properly handle them, and pretty much all his classmates did too.

          But then the Republicans started the, ‘we have to regulate!’ and the ‘but think of the children!’ nonsense because that was when the Black Panthers started going around armed, and a bunch of white people were suddenly uncomfortably aware that minorities could defend themselves from racial violence if they wanted to.

          And then the Republican Party turned around and started making guns an ‘identity’ thing, so suddenly they became a symbol of Republican so-called ‘values’, and people began obsessing over them like they were rare jewels or some such nonsense. It didn’t help that the Democrats were happy to jump on the bandwagon as the ‘we’re totally against guns so you can tell we’re different from them!’ group to provide a pearl-clutching counterpoint.

          And so now we’ve got, well, all the fetishized and forbidden-fruit bullshit. Guns are kind of seen almost like cigarettes on steroids: the cool and dangerous thing that all the rebels and ‘strong independent types’ have.

          I’m a bit In despair as to how to get us to stop doing that. Certainly other nations, like Switzerland, have lots of guns and gun access and don’t have our problems. But they definitely don’t build identities around firearms either.

          Edit to add: of course Switzerland has actual functional health care, including mental health care, so I imagine that helps.

      • Xephonian@retrolemmy.com
        2·
        3 months ago

        Gun control is racist.

        Indeed, which is why they have auto-switch Glocks in Chicago ordered off the internet but Kyle had to endure months of struggle sessions disguised as trials.

        • DeceptichumEnglish
          9·
          3 months ago

          Kyle was a fuckwit who traveled with every intention to shoot people.

          He was not a victim of anything.

  • hydrashok@sh.itjust.works
    113·
    3 months ago

    Private event, their rules. Fuck off Paxton. This “good guy with a gun” stuff is bullshit and everyone knows it, but by all means puff out the chest and bluster for the idiots in your constituency.

    • solsangraal@lemmy.zipEnglish
      27·
      3 months ago

      they’re afraid because they know if TX cops will cower around outside while school kids are massacred inside, then they sure as shit aren’t going to rush in to gOoDgUyWItHgUn at some fair with drunk texans

    • livingcoder@programming.dev
      3·
      3 months ago

      There are some people who both start and end every gun debate with the “good guy with a gun” argument. Nothing gets through the impenetrable logic of “it makes sense to me”.

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
    55·
    3 months ago

    Why doesn’t Texas AG sue trump for banning guns at his rallies?

    You guys… I’m worried this is a MAJOR oversight!

  • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
    46·
    3 months ago

    Surely they’ll allow unrestricted firearms in the gallery at the next Texas legislative session

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      3 months ago

      LiberalGunNut™ here! I say hell yes, let them put their money where their mouth is. Force them to argue against.

      FFS, I’ll never know why liberals can’t do shit like this. Texas ought to have Democratic lawmakers salivating at proposing such a law.

      • TeenieBopper@lemmy.world
        12·
        3 months ago

        If I had one political wish, it would be that conservatives are forced to live in the world they want to create.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    40·
    3 months ago

    1 Let’s allow everyone to carry guns everywhere!

    2 Oh, shit. Maybe not such a good idea. Let’s not have guns everywhere thousands of people congregate and have beer, too. Or at trump speeches. Or at NRA conventions….

    3 Republicans: Fuck you! GUNS EVERYWHRE!1!

  • wieson@lemmy.world
    31·
    3 months ago

    Just have “gun cabins” like “smoker boxes”, where all the gun owners can sit and stare at each other.

  • iconic_admin@lemmy.world
    31·
    3 months ago

    I don’t understand. I went to the Texas state fair last year. They were turning people away at the gate for having folding pocket knives or even Swiss Army knives. There where metal detectors and they where searching bags for weapons of any kind. Who is being banned from carrying guns inside the fair? The police?

    • constantokra@lemmy.one
      1·
      3 months ago

      Not a Texan, but back when you had to have a permit for concealed carry in Florida, they had wands and metal detectors, but you could just show the sheriff your CCW permit and you’d be allowed in. I assume that’s what they do in Texas too. Not sure what they’ll do now that you don’t need a permit in Florida.

  • HoustonHenry@lemmy.world
    30·
    3 months ago

    I’ve gone to the Texas State Fair when I was a kid back in the late 80’s and 90’s…it’s just a bunch of salesmen and food for the most part these days (kinda was then too, just had more actual activities for kids to participate in)

    • superweeniehutjrs@lemmy.world
      15·
      3 months ago

      I was there the night of the incident last year. I was afraid of a stampede BEFORE the shooting, it was that crowded. Yeah, guns need to be banned or Paxton needs to provide a realistic solution.

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        Bans like this are straight silly. How exactly do we propose to stop anyone from carrying? Maybe some TSA style security theater? We going to scan thousands of people coming into fairgrounds?

        Now people like me will obey the law, and some will not. Now I am unarmed, and they are. People planing mayhem, or people who prone to it, will simply ignore this. And in some states, it’s perfectly legal to carry on private property even if the owners ban it, you can only be forced to leave under threat of trespass. In others, you’re going to jail if caught.

        Being a gun nut, I’m leaning towards the latter. If a property owner says, “No.” (to anything), I’m inclined to side with them.

    • stoly@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 months ago

      It’s not that they want one, it’s that their symbols of “freedom” are worth more than the lives of people.

  • ianhclark510@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    6·
    3 months ago

    Good, goood, ban all firearms, so when some nutcase pulls another Uvalde there will be nothing stipping all the fairgoers from getting riddled with bullets while the cops bumble around outside of the gates

    • 𝔼𝕩𝕦𝕤𝕚𝕒@lemmy.world
      20·
      3 months ago

      pulls another Uvalde

      You mean where the police don’t act and instead stand around? Man it almost seems like law enforcement not acting should be the focus not the fact people are unarmed.

      Every event like this will have security with the local PD on alert if they call. That’s how it’s supposed to work - “good guy with gun” often gets shot by police response if you hadn’t been keeping track.

      • ianhclark510@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        I fail to see your logic? The slavecatcher patrols are where the problem lies, so ban a bunch of random stuff? Might as well ban shoes, pants, bags, and people under the age of 44, that would make the fair safer!

    • yetiftw@lemmy.world
      14·
      3 months ago

      as if random civilians with guns wouldn’t bumble around more and also shoot the crowd?

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
      5·
      3 months ago

      I’m not sure if the solution to a psycho firing in a crowded fairground is for amateur shooters to also fire in a crowded fairground at whomever they think is the instigator.