A Dallas County district judge on Thursday rejected Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempt to block a new State Fair of Texas policy restricting who can bring guns to the 24-day event. The ban takes effect when the fair opens next week.

At the end of a preliminary injunction hearing Thursday, Judge Emily Tobolowsky said she did not believe there was enough evidence to prove that the new restriction limiting gun ownership at the fair to elected, appointed or employed police officers violated any laws.

“I reject the injunction in its entirety,” said Tobolowsky.

Fair organizers announced on August 8 that they would tighten security measures and limit the number of people allowed to bring guns into Fair Park. Previously, any visitor with a valid firearm license was allowed to bring a gun as long as it was concealed. However, under Texas state law, Texans are not required to have a permit to carry a firearm in a public place.

The policy change came after a man shot and killed three people at the fair last year. The nonprofit leases Fair Park from the city for the event, one of the state’s largest annual festivals and the most attended fair in the country.

Dallas officials have stressed that the city government had no involvement in the fair’s decision to implement the new policy. Fair officials say they believe it is their right to take measures they deem appropriate to protect attendees.

Paxton sought a temporary restraining order to prevent enforcement of the new rule. Paxton sued the fair, Dallas and interim city manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert last month, arguing that the restriction is illegal and violates the rights of gun owners.

The lawsuit was filed two weeks after Paxton sent Tolbert a letter threatening legal action if the city did not force the fair to abandon its new policy.

Assistant Attorney General Ernest Garcia argued in court Thursday that because Dallas owns the 277-acre Fair Park and leases the site to the State Fair of Texas, the city is denying lawful gun owners access to government property by upholding the fair’s policy.

“This case is about public policy and its application to public property,” Garcia said. “It is not about private property rights or interests.”

However, attorneys for the city, Tolbert and the fair disagreed, saying that the State Fair of Texas is not affiliated with the city and that Dallas has no business in this regulation and will rely largely on fair personnel to enforce the rules unless a crime has been committed.

Jeffrey Tillotson, an attorney representing Tolbert and Dallas, said the city has not yet made an official statement on the arrangement, and during the 24 days of the fair, the private, nonprofit organization has full authority over who gets access to Fair Park.

“Our only position is that they signed the lease, they are complying with the terms, they are a private actor and they can do what they want,” Tillotson said.

He noted that Paxton recently withdrew a 2016 legal opinion from the attorney general’s office that said nonprofits had the right to ban firearms on government-leased land. Tillotson called the move rare and said it was “withdrawn primarily as a litigation tactic.”

Jim Harris, an attorney representing the State Fair of Texas, said that as long as the gun ban is a policy of the fair and not the city, he believes no state law has been violated. He noted that the state has presented no evidence that Dallas has taken any action, directly or indirectly, to discourage people from attending the fair.

“It’s not about whether the State Fair’s decision is good policy or bad policy,” Harris said. “It’s about the policy that the State Fair believes best serves its interests.”

Mitch Glieber, president of the State Fair of Texas, testified Tuesday that fair officials began discussing the policy change last year after a man shot and killed three people at the event.

The fair’s board approved the policy change in February and officials told police about the impending restriction in May to facilitate planning for this year’s event, Glieber said.

“We ultimately decided that it was in the interest of the safety of our fairgoers, our vendors and our staff to ban firearms,” ​​he said. “We made that decision. Ultimately, it would be my decision.”

He said many fairgoers expressed shock last year when they learned that carrying a license was allowed during the State Fair.

“Our audience consists of many families with young children and we have heard from many of them afterward that they do not feel comfortable at an event where so many firearms are in people’s hands,” he said.

He said the nonprofit will have access to Fair Park 90 days before the fair begins for setup, 24 days during the fair and 30 days afterward for cleanup.

The fair pays the city $1.75 million a year for the lease and another $500,000 as an annual marketing fee, Glieber said. He also said the fair covers all costs incurred by the city’s police department for the event, including the cost of on-duty and off-duty officers assigned to the event, as well as vehicle costs.

In addition to the state, three other Texas residents joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs. One of them filed a complaint against the new policy with the Attorney General’s Office.

The complaint describes the three as exercising their right to carry a firearm on state property, including the 640-acre Fair Park. Two of them are registered as licensed gun owners, while the third is not.

Alex Dubeau, an investigator with the attorney general’s office, testified Thursday that he has received complaints about the fair’s new policy since it was announced last month, most recently receiving a call about it on Wednesday.

“We receive complaints almost every day,” said Dubeau.

The investigator said he visited Fair Park nearly a month ago and when he saw city police officers there, he suspected the police were enforcing the fair’s rules.

“My recommendation was that I believed there was a violation,” Dubeau said.

Paxton and Tolbert did not attend Thursday’s hearing, and attorneys for the state declined to comment after the hearing.

Attorneys for the city, Tolbert and the fair said they were pleased with Tobolowsky’s ruling. Glieber said he looked forward to focusing on the fair’s opening day and did not rule out an appeal by the state.

“We hope we can protect our people as best as we can,” he said. “That’s the goal.”

The State Fair of Texas takes place from September 27th to October 20th.