Topline
The State Fair of Texas is set to re-open on Sunday, after three people were injured Saturday in the nation’s third state fair shooting in the last six weeks.
The Ferris wheel at the Texas State Fair in Dallas.
Key Facts
Shots were fired and fairgoers were sent into a panic just before 8 p.m. Saturday, according to the Dallas Morning News—three people were injured when one man shot at another man before he was arrested after running from police.
The State Fair was evacuated and traffic was gridlocked as families tried to leave, the News reported, and the fairgrounds in Dallas are set to reopen at 2 p.m. Sunday, four hours later than originally scheduled.
The shooting came just three weeks after an argument between two groups of people at the Oklahoma State Fair led to shots fired, and one person was shot in the chest, ABC News reported.
A crowd of people ran for safety before two people, including a teenager, were arrested at the fair in Oklahoma City. Three weeks before that, St. Paul police responded to a report of shots fired outside the Minnesota State Fairgrounds on September 2.
One man was shot in the leg, according to the Star Tribune, and police doubled their presence at the fair following the shooting—no arrest has been made.
It was the second time in as many years someone was shot at the Minnesota State Fair—an 18-year-old victim was shot twice in the abdomen on the fair’s final night of 2022.
The Texas State Fair allows people with valid handgun licenses to carry their weapons “in a concealed manner” while the Oklahoma and Minnesota state fairs do not allow guns on the premises.
Key Background
More than 500 people had been killed in mass shootings as of the end of August, the highest number of victims to have been fatally shot in the first eight months of the year in at least a decade, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings in which four or more people were injured or killed, not including the shooter. The group has logged 545 mass shootings this year. More than 29,000 people have been injured in gun-related events this year—including from murders, defensive and unintentional gun use and suicide—including more than 5,000 teenagers and children who have been hurt or killed by guns. President Joe Biden has announced a series of new gun control measures in the last several years, including a March executive order to expand background checks and last year’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which tightened laws around domestic abusers being allowed to own guns.
Big Number
63. That’s how many people have been killed in 52 mass shootings in Texas so far this year; 211 people have been injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Saturday’s state fair event does not qualify as a mass shooting per the Archive’s definition.
Further Reading
3 wounded in shooting at State Fair of Texas, suspect in custody, Dallas police say (Dallas Morning News)
More Than 500 Killed In Mass Shootings This Year—Most In At Least Ten Years (Forbes)
U.S. Passes 400 Mass Shootings In 2023–On Pace For Deadliest Year (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/10/15/texas-state-fair-shuts-down-after-gunman-injures-three-in-third-us-fair-shooting-this-year/