CPRC in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Minnesota Concealed handgun permits hit new high

Mar 3, 2015 | Featured

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

The number of Minnesotans who are legally entitled to carry a handgun reached an all-time high in 2014, with 184,895 active permits by the end of the year, according to a new report from the state.

The end-of-year total is more than 14 percent higher than last year, according to the report released Monday. There were 161,536 active permit holders at the end of 2013. . . .

About 3.95 percent of adults in Minnesota have handgun permits, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center, a nonprofit organization that studies the connection between firearms and crime. That puts Minnesota in the bottom half of states in terms of the percentage of residents who have permits. About 12.3 percent of South Dakota adults have handgun permits, the highest rate in the nation. The group found that 4.8 percent of adults nationally have handgun permits.. . .

The increase in the number of handgun permits hasn’t necessarily translated into an uptick in gun crimes.

“They thought the streets were going to be running with blood, but statistically, it hasn’t shown itself as a problem in terms of an increase in the amount of gun crimes,” [Cmdr. Paul Sommer, a spokesman with the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office] said Monday.

The Crime Prevention Research Center found that states with a high percentage of gun ownership often had low violent-crime rates. Murder rates dropped 22 percent nationally from 2007 to 2013, while the adult population with weapons permits jumped 130 percent over the same period. . . .

johnrlott

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