BCA: Minnesota Issued Record Number Of Handgun Permits In 2020

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- In 2020, Minnesota sheriffs issued nearly twice as many permits to carry as the year before.

It was the most issued -- 96,554 -- since the state's Personal Protection Act was enacted in 2003, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's yearly Permit to Carry Report.

2019 saw 51,404 permits issued.

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In total, Minnesota has 358,897 valid firearms permits. Last year, 103 were suspended, 36 revoked, 968 voided and 1,191 denied. Nearly 102,000 applications were submitted in 2020.

Hennepin County issued the most permits -- more than 11,000. Dakota, Anoka, Ramsey and Washington counties rounded out the top five.

The BCA said people with firearms permits committed 3,110 crimes last year, thought only 2% of those crimes involved firearms.