Minnesota sheriffs issued a record number of permits to carry in 2021 according to data released on Tuesday by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
106,488 permits were issued in 2021, up from 96,554 in 2020.
Hennepin County issued the most permits to carry with 16,888, double that of Ramsey County which issued the second-most at 7,467.
Anoka, Dakota, and Washington counties rounded out the top five.
The BCA data shows the crimes committed by individuals with permits to carry reached an all-time high, however just 2 percent were crimes where firearms were used in furtherance of a crime.
More than 61 percent of the 3,863 crimes committed by individuals with permits were DWI’s or other traffic offenses.
