Texas AG Sues Over ‘Gun-Free Zones’

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the city of Dallas over two “sensitive places” where lawful concealed carry is banned; locations the A.G. says are in clear violation of Lone State law. 

The City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs leases both locations; the Majestic Theater (where, incidentally, I saw a fantastic show by the band They Might Be Giants in the early 1990s) in downtown Dallas and the Fair Park Music Hall. The city has declared both of these locations “gun-free zones”, but Paxton contends the Office of Cultural Affairs doesn’t have the authority to prohibit lawful carry in either setting.

Filed in Travis County state District Court, the complaints say the arts venues turned away attendees who were licensed to carry concealed weapons. Music Hall has been leased to a nonprofit management group since 2009, while the city allows private promoters to rent out Majestic Theatre for various events.

The city of Dallas told the attorney general that event promoters determine whether to allow firearms at Majestic Theater and display signs about their policies “without any input or involvement of the City,” according to the lawsuit. 

In a news release Thursday, Paxton unequivocally asserted that “state law is clear” about gun restrictions on public property.

“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,” Paxton said in the release. “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 lawsuit against Dallas comes just days after the his office submitted a brief in support of the Texas Department of Public Safety and its top official in response to a lawsuit filed by the Firearms Policy Coalition and three Texas residents challenging the state’s ban on concealed carry at racetracks, establishments that derive 51% or more of their revenue from alcohol sales, and sporting events. 

In the AG’s reply brief to a motion for summary judgment by the Zeigenfuss plaintiffs, the state contends that while the carry prohibitions in question are indeed constitutionally unsound (or at least not supported by the national tradition of gun ownership), the lawsuit itself should be dismissed on technical grounds. That would leave the challenged statutes in place, despite the fact that Paxton and his deputies largely concur with the plaintiffs that the “gun-free zones” are an infringement on our right to keep and bear arms. 

Whether Paxton’s latest lawsuit will be successful in undoing the gun-free status of the Majestic Theater and the Fair Park Music Hall remains to be seen. The Attorney General also sued the Texas State Fair and the city of Dallas over the fair’s decision to prohibit lawful concealed carry last year, but the courts rejected his arguments for a preliminary injunction and allowed the ban to be enforced throughout the fair’s 2024 run. 

Though the 15th Court of Appeals and the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court soundly rejected Paxton’s request to temporarily block the firearms ban ahead of the 2024 event, his battle for a permanent injunction has continued at significant cost to the city over the past six months. 

In that case, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock speared the attorney general for “tak(ing) no position” on whether the State Fair has the authority to ban firearms and for failing to substantiate his assertion that the city of Dallas, not the fair, directed the policy change. Former Chief Justice Nathan Hecht and Justice Evan Young joined the scathing, five-page concurring opinion.

We’ll see if Paxton has better luck with the gun bans at the two theaters, but I suspect that the city of Dallas is going to use the same defense it has in the fight over the fair’s gun-free status; it’s not the city itself instituting the ban, but the organizations or individuals who are leasing these facilities that are setting a “no guns allowed” policy. That argument was successful in keeping the fair’s gun ban in place, and if it works to keep lawful concealed carry off-limits to patrons, the only real recourse will be for lawmakers to act. There are a couple of bills that would provide those protections for gun owners in the legislature this year, but so far none of them have seen significant movement, and 2A advocates should be reaching out to their state representatives and senators to push for passage if they really want to see these “gun-free zones” disappear.