Year Permits

2003 101 (33 five-year permits, 68 one-year permits)

2004 60 (one-year permits)

2005 22 (10 one-year permits, 12 five-year permits)

2006 31

2007 33

2008 92

2009 27 (year to date), projected year total 108 at this rate

* On May 28, 2003, state law changed from requiring five-year permits to one-year permits. In June of 2005, the law changed back to five-year permits.

Firearms permits issued

by the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office:

Year Permits

2003 114

2004 110

2005 92

2006 109

2007 110

2008 179

2009 69 (year to date), projected year total 276 at this rate

In a home where guns are kept, the degree of safety a child has rests squarely on the child’s parents. Parents who accept the responsibility to learn, practice and teach gun safety rules will ensure their child’s safety to a much greater extent than those who do not. Parental responsibility does not end, however, when the child leaves the home.

Federal statistics state there are guns in approximately half of all U.S. households. Even if no one in your family owns a gun, chances are that someone you know does. Your child could come in contact with a gun at a neighbor’s house, when playing with friends, or under other circumstances outside your home.

There is no particular age to talk with your child about gun safety. A good time to introduce the subject is the first time he or she shows an interest in firearms, even toy pistols or rifles. Talk openly and honestly about gun safety.

As with any safety lesson, explaining the rules and answering a child’s questions help remove the mystery surrounding guns.

Discuss gun use on television as opposed to gun use in real life. It may be a mistake to assume that your child knows the difference between being “killed” on TV and in reality.

Teach children four key steps to take if they find a gun.

The steps are to stop, don’t touch, leave the area and tell an adult. The initial steps are the most important.

Information from the National Rifle Association Web site.

If the rest of the year goes as it already has, more Freeborn County residents will have applied for permits to purchase and carry handguns in 2009 than any other year during at least the last seven years.

Freeborn County Sheriff Mark Harig said so far this year the Sheriff’s Office has issued 69 permits to purchase handguns — which include military-style guns and smaller guns like pistols — and 27 permits to carry them.

If these rates continue through the rest of the year, there will have been 276 permits to purchase handguns and 108 permits to carry by the end of the year.

In 2003, there were 114 permits to purchase, 110 in 2004, 92 in 2005, 109 in 2006, 110 in 2007 and 179 in 2008.

These numbers do not include permits to purchase issued by Albert Lea Police Chief Dwaine Winkels within the city limits. Those numbers were unavailable as of press time.

The 276 projected permits to purchase in 2009 is three times the lowest number in 2005.

Regarding permits to carry, there were 101 issued in 2003, 60 in 2004, 22 in 2005, 31 in 2006, 33 in 2007, and 92 in 2008.

Harig said he could not differentiate between what were first-time permits and what were renewals.

Why the increase?

Harig said he guesses that with the presidential election of now President Barack Obama versus Sen. John McCain, people began to get nervous about what was going to happen with a new administration. He noted he thinks the increase will level off.

“I don’t know if people are still assuming something might change,” he said.

He said he also thinks there’s been a spike in permits because of a change in the state’s permit-to-carry process.

In 2003, Minnesota law stated that permits to carry handguns would go from lasting five years to just one year. But in 2005, the law went back to a five-year permit.

Milan Hart, owner of Hart Brothers Weaponry in Albert Lea, said he thinks the main reason for the increase is Obama’s administration.

He said Obama wants to pass a law that would increase requirements for firearms purchases, among other things. To purchase firearms, people would be required to do things such as pass a written firearms exam and release all health records.

Hart said though he’s been in business for more than 30 years, he’s found that the current administration is “the most dangerous administration we’ve ever had.”

“The gun owners and hunting populace are absolutely running scared,” he said.

The gun shop owner said his gun and ammunition sales have gone up dramatically — with the sale of his military-style weapons going up probably 100 percent — since the election and even in the months leading up to it.

The day after the election the business sold 148 firearms, which was their record-breaking day of sales, he said, and it has been steady since.

Hart noted he also thinks there might also be an increase in people purchasing guns because of the state of the economy.

And despite what some may have thought would happen in gun sales after the recent announcement of a Level 3 sex offender moving to town, he has only had people come in for pepper spray for protection, he said.

Hart emphasized that he also conducts FBI background checks on people when they come in with their permits.

“If you ask any gun owner, they’ll say we don’t need gun control, we need criminal control,” he said.

What are the requirements to carry a handgun?

According to Minnesota Statute 624.714, all state residents who want to apply for permits to carry handguns must apply with the county sheriff where they live.

In Freeborn County, Harig said, people should come to the record’s office to fill out an application. Once that is done, the county conducts background checks on the applicants, looking at things such as criminal history — including felony convictions and assaults (including domestic assaults) — and mental commitments from the Department of Human Services, he said.

The sheriff checks for warrant information on each applicant through the Minnesota Crime Information System and the National Instant Check System, if necessary. Applicants must not be listed in the criminal gang investigative data system.

Harig said up through 2003, applicants were required to list why they wanted to carry the gun; however, that’s no longer required.

Applicants must be at least 21 years old and a citizen or a permanent resident of the United States.

They must provide evidence of taking a training course within one year of the time they are applying for the permit, Harig said. The same is true for people who just need to renew their permits.

Within 30 days after the application is received, the sheriff must either issue the permit to carry, deny the application on grounds that the applicant failed to qualify, or deny the application on grounds that there is a “substantial likelihood that the applicant is a danger to himself or to the public,” the statute states.

If a permit is issued, a laminated permit card is mailed by first class to the applicant. It expires five years after the date it is issued.

The statute states a permit to carry is not required for the following purposes:

 If a person is going to keep or carry the gun at his house or business.

 If a person is going to carry the gun from where he bought it to his house or business.

 If a person is going to carry the gun from his house to his business.

 If a person is going to carry a gun for hunting or target shooting purposes.

 To transport a gun in an automobile, snowmobile or boat if it is unloaded and contained in a closed and fastened case.

Harig said during his seven years as sheriff, he’s only had to revoke one gun permit.

“The people applying for permits aren’t the people getting in trouble,” he said.