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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.

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[–] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 216 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

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.

[–] rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com 124 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

That's a common sense gun law if I ever saw one.

Too bad the GOP has no common sense anymore, just slop rhetoric they got from some losers who want little girls to get pregnant.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 43 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

Wyatt Earp enforced such laws and he was about the most manly tough guy you can get. He's an example of everything they think of as anti-woke and he restricted gun access within city limits.

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[–] Kaboom@reddthat.com 48 points 4 weeks ago (5 children)

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 45 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

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_Demigod@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago

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

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 20 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] doingthestuff@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] lud@lemm.ee 3 points 4 weeks ago

Restrict guns for everybody! 🎉

[–] rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com 7 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

So is it less racist if everyone's arms are restricted or if everyone can open carry? Not trying to be an asshole, I'm just not convinced that asking for guns upon entry is inextricable from racism.

Though I suppose policing an an institution in itself is pretty racist since enforcement is often done by authoritarians who are terrified of others. But that's not really exclusive to policing, unfortunately; most state institutions are racist.

Anyway, I agree with you on some level, but surely there's an answer here that doesn't subjugate specific classes of people.

Edit: Then again, it's in the interest of the state to have a monopoly on violence, so idk what to think. I'm just sick of not doing anything and not having any ideas when mass shootings happen.

[–] Seleni@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks 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.

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 35 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] JimSamtanko@lemm.ee 5 points 3 weeks ago

The “Wild” West had more common sense than today’s conservatives.

[–] turmacar@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)
[–] hydrashok@sh.itjust.works 121 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

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.zip 32 points 4 weeks 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 points 3 weeks 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 56 points 4 weeks 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.xyz 48 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 19 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

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 11 points 4 weeks 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 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

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!

[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 16 points 3 weeks ago

I agree with the Republicans, lets have more guns at Trump rallies, and mandatory aiming lessons.

[–] JimSamtanko@lemm.ee 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Somewhere between: “Guns everywhere!” and “Guns nowhere!” is the idea that will make no one in America happy.

[–] iconic_admin@lemmy.world 33 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

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?

[–] Tenthrow@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe that was after the shooting.

[–] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago

I wasn't allowed to bring a pocket knife in probably 20 years ago. Weird because I am pretty sure the belt I did wear in would be a more effective weapon than that tiny knife.

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[–] HoustonHenry@lemmy.world 31 points 4 weeks 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)

[–] wieson@lemmy.world 31 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 28 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Ken Paxton is such a piece of shit.

[–] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago

When you're a piece of shit your fellow pieces of shit just let you get away with felonies. And the clowns keep re-electing him.

[–] snekerpimp@lemmy.world 20 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

It’s almost like they WANT an incident

[–] superweeniehutjrs@lemmy.world 16 points 4 weeks ago (6 children)

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.

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[–] stoly@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

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

[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 15 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Allow guns, but no bullets. And then the fair sells more deep fried bullets.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

You joke about deep fried bullets, but this is Texas. They deep fried butter. I don't even know how that's possible.

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago

Shrug I've seen deep fried ice cream. Just need to be quick :p

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