Visitors to the Minnesota State Fair won’t be packing firearms after District Court Judge Laura Nelson denied a motion for a temporary injunction, sought by the Minnesota Gun Owners and two private citizens challenging the fair’s weapons ban, according to various published reports.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune said the fair, which opened Thursday, has a “longstanding ban on guns.” The gun owners’ group contended the ban “violates state law” and also violates their rights under the Second Amendment. The newspaper recalled the state fair initiated the ban in 2003, and reminds people of the ban on the fair’s website.
The Gun Owners’ Caucus was joined by Rev. Tim Christopher and Sarah Cade Hauptman. They filed the lawsuit in Ramsey County against the Minnesota State Agricultural Society and Sheriff Bob Fletcher. The fair contracted with the sheriff’s department to provide law enforcement on the fairgrounds.
The Minnesota Reformer reported also that the plaintiffs contended the Agricultural Society lacks the authority to impose such a prohibition.
Judge Nelson did not block the lawsuit from proceeding. However, according to the Reformer article, she did not give the lawsuit much of a chance of succeeding. That view was countered by Bryan Strawser, co-founder of the gun owners’ group.
“We’re disappointed in the outcome, but we also knew that getting a temporary injunction on a case like this is a real high burden to overcome,” Strawser said, according to the Reformer. “But we’re confident we’re going to prevail in the end.”
