Texas AG Paxton Loses New Try to Override Dallas Gun Ban

A Dallas theater event promoter may have had authority to ban firearms from the city-owned venue, a Texas judge ruled, another win for the city in defending gun rights restrictions in three cases against state attorney general Ken Paxton (R).

Travis County Judge Amy Clark Meachum (D) rejected Paxton’s position that Dallas, not a third-party vendor that contracted with the city, gets to decide if guns are allowed in public buildings, and that having made that choice it wrongly banned guns on the night of performances.

Meachum denied the state’s motion for summary judgment in an order dated April 17 and made publicTuesday. She didn’t explain her ruling in the one-page order which is standard for motions resolved in Texas courts.

Her decision clears the path for the city to now ask the court for a win through a summary judgment motion that its lawyer, Jeff Tillotson of Tillotson Patton, said he will soon file.

The fight began in 2024 when Paxton, who is seeking his party’s US Senate nomination, brought a suit alleging Dallas wrongly banned firearms from the State Fair of Texas. The Texas Supreme Court allowed the ban to take place for the event that year. The case is now before the state intermediary appellate court after a trial court dismissed it in June 2025.

In April 2025, Paxton brought two suits alleging Dallas wrongly stopped a person with a handgun from entering separate theaters the city manages. In one, Meachum denied Paxton’s motion for summary judgment in early March, a month before she held a hearing in the other one at the center of the ruling announced Tuesday.

Grant Walsh, a gun owner Paxton highlighted to bring claims in the second lawsuit, says he was forbidden from entering Majestic Theatre in February 2023 and February 2024 because he was carrying a gun.

During a hearing April 2, Tillotson said the city is powerless to ban firearms at public property leased by a private group.

“It’s up to them if they want to allow guns and under what circumstances,” Tillotson said.

Paxton is seeking a total of $35 million in fines between the three cases, including $3.75 million in the Majestic case.

The case is Texas v. City of Dallas, Tex. Dist. Ct., No. D-1-GN-25-002553, 4/17/26.