Though there've been numerous news stories over the past month about liberals and progressives embracing their Second Amendment rights, largely in response to increased ICE immigration enforcement efforts, we haven't seen a lot of hard data to back up those claims. But a new report from the Minneapolis Star Tribune suggests that the phenomenon isn't just a creation of the media, at least in the Twin Cities.
The paper spoke to local sheriffs and licensing authorities in and around Minneapolis and St. Paul, and found that both concealed carry and
permit-to-purchase applications soared in January. Hennepin County, for instance saw a 70% increase compared to January 2025. In Minneapolis, permits to purchase tripled compared to last January, and other jurisdictions are reporting significant increases as well.
St. Paul police saw more than a twofold increase in applications to 225. Ramsey County reported roughly the same amount of applications as last January, though gun rights advocates say that’s primarily due to bottlenecking after the county recently began requiring residents to schedule appointments to submit their applications.
Brooklyn Park, Woodbury and Maple Grove, three of the metro area’s largest suburbs, each reported roughly double the number of firearm applications this January compared to last.
The percentages are pretty eye-popping, but the raw numbers are less impressive. That three-fold increase in permits-to-purchase in Minneapolis, for example, amounts to 350 permits in a city with more than 400,000 residents.
Still, in the Twin Cities and their suburbs, it's probably fair to say that several thousand folks have submitted their permit-to-purchase applications in January alone, and the number could grow even higher when February's figures are available. Renee Good was shot and killed on January 7, and Alex Pretti was shot and killed on January 24. Good's death may have been the catalyst for an initial wave of interest in the right to keep and bear arms on the left, but I think Pretti's death was even more significant in that regard, given that he was actually carrying a handgun until moments before he was shot by Border Patrol officers.
David Taylor knows to expect higher gun sales following major political news. But Taylor, who owns Stock & Barrel Gun Club in Eagan, said last month’s spike took him by surprise.
... Gun shops across the Twin Cities metro reported elevated sales compared to what they typically sell this time of year. They also said they’re seeing a lot of new buyers who don’t necessarily fit their typical customer base.
... Gun shop owners also noted that many customers last month purchased home defense shotguns. State law only requires permits for handguns and semi-automatic weapons, not shotguns or bolt-action hunting rifles — meaning the increase in gun sales is likely higher than what the permit numbers show.
It's an open question as to whether this spike in gun ownership on the left is truly a national phenomenon or one more limited to the Twin Cities. We'll get a better idea in a couple of weeks when the February NICS numbers are released, but I'd be pretty surprised to see a dramatic upswing nationally.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation reported 1,222,980 NICS checks for firearm transfers in February 2025, which was a 9% decrease from the year before. If that figure is roughly the same for this February, that alone would be notable, and given the anecdotal evidence from Minnesota and an anticipated continued increase in sales in Virginia (where the prospect of new gun control is sending folks flocking to FFLs), it could easily happen.
An increase of 9% would result in roughly 1,450,000 NICS checks on gun transfers, and that would mark the best February for sales since 2016. It would also be pretty strong evidence that more folks on the left are buying guns across the country, and not just in places like the Twin Cities where immigration enforcement has been ramped up.
Again, I'd be surprised to see that kind of spike, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. How many of these new gun owners will become actual Second Amendment advocates, though, is a question all its own, and an increase in gun ownership on the left won't automatically translate into Democrat politicians shifting their stances on gun control. For that we need to see 2A activism coming from the left, and I don't think there's nearly as much evidence for that at the moment, even in Minneapolis.
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