On the second weekend of State Fair of Texas, just before 8 p.m., gunshots sent fairgoers in the Tower Building running. Three people were wounded. Not long after, the alleged shooter, Cameron Turner, was arrested.
Dallas City Councilman Adam Bazaldua’s district includes Fair Park. On social media last night, he said that the incident was “sparked from a conflict between two people who knew each other.”
Nevertheless, the gunfire was frightening and at least one fair employee had to be hospitalized. It has also further fueled a debate over security and gun violence.
Last year, more than 2.5 million people visited the fair, so it is safe to assume that at least that many will come to Fair Park this year, too. As much as we’d like to feel that we are always safe, Saturday night’s incident drives home how differently an altercation can proceed when someone has a gun.
According to the State Fair’s website, only people who are licensed to carry a gun are allowed to bring their weapon to the fairgrounds, and even then, it must be concealed. Dallas police say that the shooter was not licensed, and the incident was not random. They have not detailed how the shooter got the gun inside.
The requirement to have a license to enter the fairgrounds with a gun likely means that most gun owners are technically excluded from bringing in a weapon. In Texas, a license is not a requirement for carrying a gun. In 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a permitless carry bill co-authored by state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, into law.
As the bill was debated in Austin, Dallas police chief Eddie Garcia said the prospect of untrained gun owners was “frightening.”
“I don’t think it makes us safer,” he told D Magazine in an EarBurner podcast in 2021. “I don’t think it’s gonna make your community feel safer.”
Garcia questioned the elimination of the training that goes with obtaining a license to carry, citing statistics that indicate at least half of those who sought a permit had never handled a gun before.
“And now you’re going to have individuals that have never handled guns in their lives being able to go out (and get a gun),” he said. “It (the Second Amendment) says it is a well-regulated militia … which to me, I’m going to take that to mean trained.”
Statistics show that Texans bought more than 1.6 million guns in 2021. A Washington Post analysis of federal background checks determined that almost 6 million guns have been purchased statewide since 2020.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, 393,155 people applied for a license to carry permit in 2020, the year before permitless carry became law. Of those applications, 390,886 were approved. In 2022, the year after the law went into effect, 262,423 applications were filed, with 260,908 approved. That means that almost 131,000 fewer applications were filed after the bill became law.
The legislature did not address gun violence in its regular session this year, despite 21 people dying in a school shooting in Uvalde and seven in a shooting at an Allen outlet mall. (Leach represents the latter district.)
With that backdrop, much of the conversation about Saturday’s shooting centered on how someone without a permit managed to bring a gun into the fair undetected.
Over on the State Fair’s Facebook page, many fairgoers questioned its security, with some reporting that they experienced different scrutiny depending on which gates they entered.
Some of that confusion may be because of new measures the fair added this year. In September, officials announced that it would be using “Open Gate” towers at entrances. The six-foot tall, high-tech scanners are designed to detect weapons in bags or purses. Ostensibly, the move was made to make it more convenient for fairgoers—instead of waiting in line to have your bag physically inspected, you can simply walk into the fair.
“You can keep your bag on, you can keep your phone in your pocket and walk through it,” Karissa Condoianis, the fair’s senior vice president for public relations, told WFAA.
The station reports, however, that some experts are skeptical of the towers’ effectiveness. One speculated that the devices may be better at finding high-caliber rifles than detecting a handgun or a knife. Police said the shooter used a handgun, which was recovered shortly after the incident.
Some are questioning why fair officials allow guns into the event at all, and have called for subsequent fairs to be gun-free zones. Typical gun-free areas, according to state law, include schools, race tracks, and hospitals. Private property owners can also decide to prohibit guns. Anyone carrying a weapon within one of those areas would be unlawfully doing so.
That distinction is also alluded to in the State Fair’s own FAQ section.
“The State Fair of Texas is—and always has been—a private entity,” it reads. “The Fair leases the Fair Park property from the City of Dallas but is not part of the City or controlled by a government body.”
“The State Fair of Texas has long been, and continues to be, a strong supporter of the rights of responsible gun owning Texans,” the explanation says.
After Saturday, that stance may be put to the test.
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