Minnesota has more guns and less crime

More people are now carrying guns in the state of Minnesota than at any point in its history. Meanwhile, its violent crime is at a record low, according to statistics.

In 2016 Minnesota hit a 50 year low in violent crimes, according to the FBI. In 2017, the state set a new record for the number of background checks for firearms. CBS Minnesota reports:

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System reports it processed nearly 683,544 checks on gun buyers in 2017. That includes: 473,975 permits, 94,383 handguns and 125,516 long guns.

Minnesota set another 2017 record, too.

The State Department of Public Safety reports 283,188 Minnesotans now have permits to legally carry firearms in public.

In 2017, the state issued 57,651 permits to carry a weapon in public. That’s down from a record 71,156 permits issued in 2016.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about guns in Minnesota. An estimated 36.7 percent of Minnesotans own at least one firearm.

Meanwhile, the left continues to push the idea that gun ownership, in and of itself, translates into gun violence. Minnesota is a case in point to show that firearms possession does not necessarily translate into violent crime. More than a third of the state’s population legally owns a minimum of one firearm. And crime is the lowest it has been in a half of a century.

At the same time, the poster boy example for violent crime, Chicago, has some of the strictest controls on firearms anywhere in the country, and yet is so riddled with violent crime that it is regularly described by locals as a “war zone”.