Minnesota reports sharp drop in gun-carry permits

4128358+handgun-231696_1920.jpg — Minnesota enacted its permit-to-carry law in 2003. Applicants must take an approved firearms training course and apply at their local sheriff鈥檚 office.

By Alex Derosier

March 01, 2023 at 2:52 PM

ST. PAUL 鈥� The number of permits to carry a firearm issued by Minnesota sheriffs dropped significantly in 2022 after two record years in a row.

Last year, 65,257 Minnesotans obtained a permit to carry, down from the all-time record of 106,000 in 2021, according to the annual permit-to-carry report released Wednesday, March 1, by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Minnesota saw a surge in the number of permits issued in 2020, a year marked by the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest and a rise in violent crime. Before permits soared to record highs for two years, sheriffs issued anywhere from 40,000 to 70,000 permits yearly.

The pandemic-era trend appears to be easing. Rural and urban counties saw significant decreases in the number of permits issued. Hennepin County, the state鈥檚 most populous with more than 1.2 million people, issued about 8,600 permits last year. Compare that to more than 16,000 in 2021.

In rural Polk County in northwestern Minnesota, the sheriff issued 363 permits last year; in 2021, that county issued 690. Olmsted, St. Louis, Clay and Beltrami counties also saw a significant drop in permits issued.

As of the report鈥檚 release date, there are 395,626 valid permits to carry a firearm in the state of Minnesota. That鈥檚 up from 387,013 the year before.

In 2022, sheriffs suspended 177 permits, revoked 27, voided 1,414 and denied 866. There were four reported incidents of lawful and justifiable use of firearms by permit holders.

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Minnesota enacted its permit-to-carry law in 2003. Applicants must take an approved firearms training course and apply at their local sheriff鈥檚 office. The sheriff鈥檚 office then investigates the applicant鈥檚 background before deciding whether to issue a permit.

Minnesota鈥檚 permit-to-carry law is not a concealed-carry law per se. It allows for the concealed and open carrying of firearms. Other states, such as Wisconsin and North Dakota, allow for open carrying of firearms under certain circumstances without a permit.

Sheriff鈥檚 offices are required by statute to provide the BCA with data on carry-permit applications, issuances and denials, which the agency compiles in an annual statewide report. Background checks screen records from agencies including the FBI and BCA.

031920.N.DNT.COVIDGunsPIC — Mike Frisk, who operates his gun shop, Gunrunners, in his Cloquet, Minn., home, said in spring 2020 he believed brisk sales at the time would yield to depleted stocks later.

People holding permits to carry committed 4,199 crimes in 2022 鈥� though just 3% of those offenses involved a firearm being used to commit a crime. More than 60% of the offenses were driving while intoxicated or other traffic offenses. The 鈥渙ther鈥� category accounted for 15% of crimes, including less serious offenses like violations of ordinances or Department of Natural Resources regulations and other serious offenses like stalking.

The BCA noted that the percentage of permit holders who committed crimes was just 1%, a statistic consistent with past years.

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