Are they serious?

Why are Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and some Republican legislators throwing a fit over not being able to carry a firearm around at the State Fair of Texas?

 
 

Are they serious? Or is their outrage just another round of base-baiting gun stuff, with no anchor in logic or public activity?

Seems the latter to me. There's all kinds of public spaces and events in Texas where you can't bring a gun, like rodeos, and festivals, and college football games, and...

 
 

  • public and private K-12 schools and colleges

  • government court or offices utilized by the court

  • racetracks

  • most parts of airports

  • bars

  • hospitals

  • polling locations (!)

  • professional sporting games

  • nursing homes

  • Rodeo Austin

  • your workplace if the business says so

  • behavioral health hospitals

  • San Antonio Rodeo

  • Houston Rodeo

  • local and state government meeting rooms

  • any private businesses

  • music festivals – (like Austin City Limits, Lights All Night)

  • Texas A&M, UT Austin, Texas Tech football games

  • Circuit of the Americas events

  • Dallas Riverfront Jazz Festival

  • Texas Tribune Festival

  • other private property

So what's different about the State Fair?

This kind of nonsense is not just political gaming, it’s damaging. The last thing this state needs is another rallying cry for the proliferation of weapons. I’ll go further: it’s so illogical, so whiney, so silly that it even damages more serious arguments in favor of gun-owner rights.

The State Fair of Texas should ignore Ken Paxton’s threats, and the Legislature should reject any attempts to bludgeon the safety and good sense out of the State Fair with another bad gun bill. We have real work to do.