How do I get a firearms license in Minnesota?
December 1st, 2009 by eranio
A couple of friends and myself want to get our firearms license. One of my friends and I are prior military and have used firearms as part of our training. But we never thought about the civilian license until recently. Unfortunately, any information I can gather from the Internet is geared toward hunting and youth. If anyone knows a place thats offers courses and training in Minnesota (preferably Dakota County), it would be much appreciated.
Posted in military firearms
December 1st, 2009 at 8:15 am
Minnesota has a "Permit To Purchase" requirement for handgun purchases and ‘assault weapon type’ purchases.
Go to your local sherrif’s office or police station. They will have a form for you to fill out, and in about 7 days they will call and tell you if you passed the background check and come on down and pick up your permit. Basically as long as you are of age, not a nutcase, and not a felon , you get the permit.
Once oyu get your Permit To Purchase, simply go to a gunstore and pick out what you want. Now, the dealer will need to run the very same check the police just ran. It doesn’t matter that the police ran it a week ago (yes, this is a reduntant waste of tax payer money) but the dealer will run an "instant’ check by phone. (as does the police, they just often drag their feet and take as long as possible to issue it, basically forcing it into a defacto "cooling off period") I have an uncommon last name, so I get passed within minutes. If your name is David Smith, expect for it to take longer, up to a few days, but that is quite rare.
There is no need to register any firearms, and no "permit to purchase" for shotguns or hunting type rifles.
Dakotah Firing Range is right to mystic lake casino, in the sports complex right behind it. Burnsville Pistol Range is probably the most economical. Hit up either of those, they both will have basic NRA pistol classes.
Now, there is one more permit in MN, concealed carry permit (although in MN there is no need for you to actually conceal the gun if you have the permit to carry it). This requires you to attend a concealed carry class, usually costing about $100, Joel Rosenberg, the famous author and MN resident is one guy who teaches such classes, but there are hundreds of them out there. Once you have completed the class, you can apply for a permit to carry. Minnesota is a Shall Issue state, which means that the police/sherriff cannot turn you down unless they have a good reason. Before, the Minneapolis police would just take the permit form and throw it right in the trash and then to your face say ‘we’ll get back to you’ It got so bad that for a while there was a law in place that if Minneapolis Police didn’t get back to you with an accept/deny in 30 days, it was an auto-accept. A few years ago we were able to reform the whole system state wide.
December 1st, 2009 at 8:15 am
o cool you live in minnesota to. just go to the DNR in minnesota.
visit the website at http://www.dnr.state.mn.us
/hunting
December 1st, 2009 at 8:15 am
In Minnesota we have two permits you can use to purchase pistols. For long guns such as rifles and shotguns you wouldnt need a license. For hunting licenses in MN you would need to take a DNR hunter’s safety course unless you were born before 1980.
For purchasing handguns you could go to your county sheriff and fill out their form which is an application for a permit to purchase. This permit is good for one year and would not allow you to carry the pistol. The conceal carry is the other permit here in MN that you can use to purchase and carry a concealed handgun. This permit is good for 5 years and you would need to take an approved handgun safety course. This course explains alot of the legal mumbo jumbo. Look in the classifieds in the Star Tribune there may be courses listed in the classifieds. The course I took a few years ago was in nowthen thats just north of Anoka and I think they have a course coming up soon. I’ll leave you a web address for you too for some courses that are coming up soon.
Once your done with the course you take a copy of the class certificate, copy of your Drivers’ license to your county sheriff and fill out the forms they require. The sheriff would then do a background check on you the same as if you applied for the purchase permit and if everything is fine you would get your permit in about a month.