Minnesota handgun carry permits near 66,000 in 2025, highest since 2021
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Minnesotans were granted nearly 66,000 permits to carry a handgun in 2025 — the highest number since 2021.
The big picture: Monthly data shows that applications spiked again early this year, as Operation Metro Surge ramped up.
- One St. Louis Park gun shop told WCCO sales were 30% above normal in January.
Between the lines: The trend mirrors on a smaller scale what happened in 2020 and 2021, when local gun permit applications spiked following the murder of George Floyd and the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
- "When events like this occur, whenever there's kind of a black swan event, people scramble to get their permits," Stock & Barrel Gun Club CEO David Taylor told WCCO.
The intrigue: Rob Doar, president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center, recently told the Star Tribune that permit-to-carry instructors are seeing younger, more liberal Minnesotans sign up for classes.
- The annual data, released this week by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, show that permits were up 18% year-over-year in Hennepin County.
Zoom in: The 2025 additions brought the total number of valid permits issued by sheriffs statewide to 375,551.
- About 2,400 were suspended, revoked, voided or denied. Nine of those were revoked under the state's new "Red Flag" law.
The fine print: The data reflects permits to carry a handgun in public. Minnesota does not track permits for firearm purchases.