Fewer Minnesotans sought permits to carry guns in 2024, report finds

Minnesota saw a noticeable drop in the number of people who sought permits to carry handguns in 2024, according to a new report from the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

The statistics were laid out in the Permit to Carry Annual Report from the BCA, which compiles data from each county’s sheriff’s office. The report includes the number of permit-to-carry approvals, denials and pending cases for each county.

In total, 67,216 Minnesotans applied for gun-carry permits in 2024. It’s a 13.8% drop in applications, or roughly 10,700 fewer compared with 2023.

The number of permits granted also dropped in 2024, with 57,248 permits issued over the year.

This trend of fewer handgun carry permits took place in all of Minnesota’s most populated areas, including Hennepin, Ramsey and Dakota counties.

This latest report shows a reversal from 2023, when gun permit applications increased by 10.6%.

Last year, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said fewer handgun permits are typically a positive sign.

“Gun permits are often a reflection of the fear that a community has,” he said following the 2023 report.

It was the lowest amount of new handgun carry permits in Minnesota since 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests following the murder of George Floyd. In 2020 and 2021, there was a spike with 96,554 and 106,488 permits to carry issued, respectively.

The report only compiles data on permits to carry a handgun; the state does not track permits to purchase them.

Jeff Potts, executive director of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, cautioned reading too much into a short-term decline in gun permits or slight decreases in some crime categories. He said police chiefs still see higher crime rates compared with years before the pandemic.

“The decreases [in crime] have not gotten us anywhere close to where we were pre-pandemic, and especially with crimes where guns are used,” Potts said. “That’s still a concern for the police chiefs.”

Earlier this year, a nationwide report from the Council on Criminal Justice showed that nearly all crime categories fell in 2024 in American cities.

The trends were more complicated in the Twin Cities. A Minnesota Star Tribune analysis of Twin Cities crime data showed that St. Paul continued seeing drops in most major crime categories, while Minneapolis saw some violence metrics increase, ending a two-year streak of declines.

Elliot Hughes and Jeff Hargarten of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.