Andrew Rothman, Vice President of the Minnesota Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance (MNGOCRA) was good enough to e-mail me a few days ago to alert me that Minnesota would soon be exceeding 100,000 carry permit holders. Along with this notification Andrew also sent me the breakdown of permit holder statistics by age range:
| 21-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60-69 | 70-79 | 80-89 | 90-99 | Total | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Male | 11,618 | 14,984 | 16,906 | 19.996 | 16,068 | 5,680 | 784 | 34 | 86,070 | 86.8% |
| Total Females | 1,830 | 2,350 | 3,098 | 3,509 | 1,939 | 391 | 28 | 1 | 13,146 | 13.2% |
| Percentage Male | 86.4% | 86.4% | 84.5% | 85.1% | 89.3% | 93.6% | 96.6% | 97.1% | ||
| Percentage Female | 13.6% | 13.6% | 15.5% | 14.9% | 10.8% | 6.4% | 3.4% | 2.9% | ||
| Percentage Age | 13.9% | 17.5% | 20.2% | 23.7% | 18.1% | 6.1% | 0.8% | 0.04% |
Raw numbers are boring though so let’s display some charts. What’s that you’re asking? I actually went out of my want to make charts? Heck no, these were also provided by Andrew who is obviously a far more productive man than I am. First we have the overall breakdown of permit holders by age range:
Not surprisingly the majority of permit holders are male although I’m sure a bunch of gun control advocates are going to point to this and claim it’s part of the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) secret conspiracy to war on women or something. In reality woman just aren’t as apt to enter the shooting sports or obtain carry permits although that is changing as woman become the fastest growing segment in the firearms market. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the male to female ratio change over the next several years. The next chart Andrew was good enough to send me was a breakdown of permit holders by age range:
The two largest age ranges are 50-59 and 40-49 although the age ranges between 21-29 and 60-69 are fairly evenly broken down overall. What I believe is the most interesting chart is the one that breaks down permit holders by county:
By far the highest percent of permit holder density per country population is in the more rural areas. This makes sense since firearm ownership and thus awareness is more common in rural areas than urban areas. In Minnesota people living in rural areas are more likely to be introduced to firearms than people living in urban areas. Because of this people in rural areas are generally more comfortable around firearms while those raised in urban areas have often had the misguided claim that firearms are bad crammed down their throats. As the firearm market grows I’m betting the density map will being changing as the number of gun owners in urban areas increases.
The final chart Andrew sent to me shows the percentage of females by age range:
It appears the percentage of female permit holders is pretty much in line with the percentage of permit holders by age range. Once again I’m guessing this chart will change as the number of female gun owners increase. In fact I would bet the percentage of female gun owners in the age ranges of 21-29 and 30-39 will increase are a faster rate than the other age ranges.
No matter how you look at the data one thing is clear, the number of permit holders in Minnesota is increasing. As much as it dismays the gun control zealots people are no longer listening to their malarkey claims. Gun sales are up, permit holders are up, and the influence of the gun control advocates is waning.