Minnesota’s 2025 Permit to Carry Report: Denials, Reversals, and Ramsey County

More Permits Issued While the Valid Permit Total Fell

Minnesota received 75,782 permit applications in 2025, up 12.7% from 2024. The reported number of five-year permits issued rose from 57,248 to 65,961, an increase of 8,713 permits, or 15.2%. The number of valid permits at year end moved in the opposite direction, falling by 20,146, from 401,551 to 381,405. [1] [2]

Annual issuance includes renewals. A year-end inventory counts permits that remain valid after expirations and other status changes. An increase in annual issuance can coexist with a decrease in that inventory. These figures do not count first-time gun owners, and they do not establish why individual holders chose to renew or let permits expire.

Comparisons use the corresponding tables in each annual report. Percent changes are calculated from the reported counts. [1] [2]

94 Denial Actions Were Reversed

The BCA’s action table records 751 denial actions during 2025 and 94 reversals. The reversed count equals 12.5% of the recorded denial actions, roughly one in eight. The same table records 31 reversals of 261 suspension actions, or 11.9%. [3]

That 12.5% ratio is not an appeal success rate. The report does not provide a complete denominator of challenged denials or identify which reversals resulted from sheriff reconsideration, court proceedings, corrected records, or changed circumstances. It also does not establish the effect of attorney representation. It does show that dozens of recorded denials were reversed.

The report separately lists 597 applications received in 2025 with a denied status on December 31, or 0.79% of that year’s 75,782 applications. Another 9,057 applications, about 12%, remained pending. The 597 year-end statuses and 751 annual denial actions come from different tables and cannot be used interchangeably. A pending status alone does not establish that the processing deadline was violated. [1] [3]

Ratios compare the counts within each action-table row. They do not measure a person’s likelihood of winning an appeal or establish a unique-person count. [3]

Ramsey County Had an Outsized Share of Denied Applications

Ramsey County received 4,166 applications, representing 5.5% of the statewide total. Of those applications, 106 had a denied status at year end. That accounted for 17.8% of the statewide denied-status total. Ramsey’s share of denied applications was approximately 3.2 times its share of all applications. [4]

Within Ramsey County, 2.54% of applications had a denied status, compared with 0.79% statewide. Hennepin County’s figure was 1.19%; Dakota’s was 0.97%; Anoka’s was 0.62%. Together, Ramsey and Hennepin accounted for 17.6% of applications and 36.0% of applications with a denied status. [4]

Those differences invite questions about the underlying cases. The report does not adjust for applicants’ eligibility, criminal histories, other case characteristics, or processing practices. The county figures establish a difference in recorded outcomes; they do not establish its cause or prove that an individual denial was improper.

Share denied means denied year-end statuses divided by all applications, including pending applications. Figures use the detailed county appendix because the short county table contains conflicting entries. [4]

Related reading: Minnesota Permit Denial and Appeal Representation

The Reasons for Denial Need Their Own Denominator

The Summary of Reasons lists 859 denial-reason entries. An applicant can have more than one recorded reason, so that total is not a count of 859 different people or 859 separate denials. The table’s largest individual categories include 199 entries for other reasons, 190 for the statutory crime-of-violence category, and 129 concerning a substantial likelihood of danger to self or the public. [5]

The broad other-reasons category accounts for 23.2% of the listed reason entries. The danger category accounts for 15.0%. Neither percentage is a share of all permit applicants. For an individual applicant, the denial notice and the cited records are needed to identify the actual legal and factual basis.

Selected categories only. The report permits multiple reasons for an applicant. The statutory crime-of-violence classification is a legal category and should not be treated as a factual description of every underlying offense. [5]

The Report Contains Gaps and County Table Conflicts

The reasons summary lists 129 denials under the substantial-likelihood-of-danger category. The separate Denials Explanation Report contains seven entries. The report does not explain how these sections reconcile. Its explanation appendix cannot support conclusions about the factual grounds or appeal outcomes for all of those denials. [5] [6]

The short county table also conflicts with the detailed appendix. For example, the short table lists six Scott County denials, while the appendix lists eleven. It lists 34 Sibley County denials, while the appendix lists one. The short table’s Sibley row even lists 388 pending applications despite only 312 total applications. These discrepancies are visible in the report itself. [1] [4]

The county comparisons in this article use the detailed appendix. Its status records sum to 75,782 applications across all 87 counties. Checking those records matters before drawing conclusions from an apparent county outlier.

The Report Counts Offenses Even When No Pistol Was Used

The BCA’s conviction table follows the person’s permit-holder status. An offense is included even when a pistol was not used in committing it. The 5,647 total is a count of reported conviction entries across offense categories, including offenses without pistol use. It should not be read as 5,647 gun crimes. [7]

The report expressly identifies 2,864 entries in which a pistol was not used in furtherance of the offense, or 50.7% of the total. It identifies a pistol used in furtherance of the offense in 139 entries, or 2.5%. For the remaining 2,644 entries, or 46.8%, involvement was unknown or unreported. The distinction is built into the BCA’s own table. [7]

Driving under the influence accounted for 1,315 entries, and the separate traffic category accounted for 1,827. Together, those categories represented 55.6% of the total. The traffic category covers conduct ranging from registration offenses to fleeing police in a vehicle. A permit holder can appear under more than one crime, so the table total is not a count of unique people. [7]

All three categories are included in the 5,647 total. Unknown involvement is kept separate from confirmed nonuse. Percentages are rounded independently. [7]

Research Finds Permit Holders Are a Particularly Law-Abiding Group

Comparative research supports describing permit holders as a particularly law-abiding group. A peer-reviewed study published in the American Journal of Public Health examined Texas Department of Public Safety conviction data from 2001 through 2009. The researchers found that concealed-handgun license holders were much less likely than people without licenses to be convicted of crimes. [9]

That finding supports the comparison with the general public on recorded criminal convictions. The study also found that the relatively few license-holder convictions were distributed differently across offense categories. Its findings concern Texas license holders during the study period; Minnesota’s annual report does not itself supply an equivalent nonholder conviction rate. [9]

What an Applicant Can Do After a Permit Denial

A permit denial must identify the specific factual basis and the source of that basis. Minnesota law provides a 20-business-day window to submit additional documentation relating to the propriety of the denial. Once that documentation is received, the sheriff must reconsider and notify the applicant of the result within 15 business days. Minn. Stat. § 624.714, subd. 6(b) (2025). [8]

An attorney can help obtain the underlying records, identify whether a claimed disqualification actually applies, correct incomplete information, and organize a submission that addresses the sheriff’s stated reasons. A focused, supported submission can put the applicant’s strongest case before the sheriff during reconsideration. The reported reversals do not promise a particular result.

District-court review is de novo, meaning the court considers the matter anew. The sheriff must establish the statutory grounds by clear and convincing evidence. If the court grants the applicant’s petition, the statute requires an award of reasonable costs and expenses, including attorney fees. Minn. Stat. § 624.714, subd. 12(a)–(b), (d) (2025). The 20-business-day documentation window concerns reconsideration; it should not be confused with a deadline to file a court petition. [8]

Related reading: What to Do if Your Minnesota Permit to Carry Is Denied · Permit Denial and Appeal Representation

How These Numbers Were Calculated

Year-over-year changes compare the same measures in the BCA’s 2024 and 2025 reports. County denied shares divide applications with a denied December 31 status by all applications received in 2025. Ramsey’s statewide shares use 4,166 ÷ 75,782 for applications and 106 ÷ 597 for denied statuses.

Reversed-action shares divide the reversed count by the total in the same action-table row. Denial-reason shares use 859 reason entries as the denominator. Percentages are rounded independently. These calculations describe the reported data; the report supplies neither a complete appeal-success denominator nor an explanation for every county difference.