Everything You Need To Know

Introduction

Do you want to carry a handgun in Minnesota?

Are you sure?

Don't be too quick to decide.

There are lots of reasons not to, after all&emdash;particularly if you listen to the often well-intentioned people who bandy about phrases like “there’s already too many guns on the street,” “every fender-bender will turn into a gunfight,” “what if there’s a pistol in that parka?” Even if you listen to people in the self-defense-rights movement, you’ll hear that getting a carry permit may not be right—for you. Because that’s what you’ve got to decide.

Not: is allowing citizens to get carry permits a good idea?

Not even, yet: Do I want to carry a handgun in public?

But:

Should I get a carry permit?

After you decide that, then you have other decisions to make. The Minnesota Citizens Personal Protection Act of 2003 changed the law in Minnesota about what’s formally known as a “Minnesota Permit to Carry a Pistol,” and usually just called a “carry permit.”

Until it was passed, Minnesota was one of the minority of “may-issue” states—those states where handgun carry permits may be issued at the discretion of government officials. In some Minnesota counties, permits were issued to any adult who applied for one; in some cities, they were issued only to security guards, or to nobody at all.

Minnesota is now part of the majority: it’s a “shall-issue” state, where any objectively qualifying adult can get a carry permit simply by taking and passing the appropriate training, filling out and filing a form with the local sheriff, and paying a fee. It’s like a driver’s license—if you qualify, you can receive a carry permit. And it’s like a driver’s license in another way: a driver’s license allows you to drive a car; it doesn’t require you to.

There’s an important distinction between getting a carry permit and carrying a handgun in public. Some people who don’t ever plan on carrying a handgun may well get a carry permit—a permit gives you a choice about carrying a handgun, not an obligation. But, just as with a driver’s license and driving a car, having a carry permit and carrying a handgun is a responsibility you should take very seriously.

It wouldn’t be accurate to say that it’s easy to get a handgun permit in Minnesota, just as it wouldn’t be accurate to say that it’s easy to get a driver’s license: you have to train and qualify for either. There’s work involved, and some expense—although not a lot—and there should be some careful thought, as well.

And about the only thing we can promise you about carrying a handgun is this—and it’s a theme we’ll return to regularly in this book:

A gun never solves problems. Really.

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