Long story short, wife is from MN and since we've had kids she wants to be closer to family. So we are planning on moving to the St Cloud area next spring.

Anything I need to be aware of as far as firearms laws go?

TIA

Dave

No suppressors.  

Need purchase or carry permit to buy handguns/"Assault Rifles".

Need to be 21 to buy handgun ammo.

There are probably many more that I'm not thinking of right now.

SBS no. SBR yes. Full auto only on C&R

Pluses are we are shall-issue for carry permits and there are no magazine restrictions (I know, we shouldn't have to consider ourselves lucky on these very basic firearm rights, but in today's world it is what it is).

If you plan on getting your Permit to Carry, unlike some other states, we have a "Duty to Retreat" law. In other words, the gun is the last resort and we are required to retreat if we have a safe way of doing so.

Personally, I'm ok with Minnesota gun law, but there is A LOT of room for improvement. If you come from a more gun friendly state, you may be disappointed.
-Permit to purchase for handguns and "military-style"  rifles like AR's and AK's(same permit). Costs nothing good for a year.
-Permit to carry allows for CCW and OC. Costs money, good for five years. Also acts as a permit to purchase.
-Not very NFA friendly. SBR and C&R MG's are ok. SBS and suppressors are not. I think AOW and DD are good to go, but I'm not sure.
-No restrictions on magazine capacity.
-Long guns must be unloaded and cased when being transported. An exception was recently made to allow loaded long guns in vehicles while hunting, but it is complicated. Looking this law up again, I think I was wrong.

Do you like paying taxes?

Thanks for the input.

Coming from CO so we have some recently passed absurd gun laws.

I figure the taxes will be a wash overall

Dave

Could be much, MUCH worse.

I lived in NY and worked in NJ. Talk about taking it up the ass...

Not firearms related but:

DON'T live in the St Cloud School district if you have kids.  The school system is horrible and getting worse, lots of racial tension especially at the High School.  Its basically an all races vs. Somolian problem, but there are LOTS of fights in the school.  My fiancées brother just had to transfer out and go to the ALC, not a book issue but rather he was getting targeted a lot (big kid at 6'3", why do they always want to fight the big guy!).  Hes about the nicest kid you'd meet, and a few of them was because he stood up for some weaker kids or females who were getting messed with.  They also vandalized his truck a couple times in the parking lot.

Taxes mentioned a bit earlier, the St Cloud Metro area to include Waite Park, Sauk Rapids and Sartell have an additional 1% (I think that is correct) city tax.  One of a dozen or so metropolitan areas/cities to have their own sales tax.

If your in St Cloud, carry a gun (carry one anyways).  There are some nice areas outside of the St Cloud Metro area that wouldn't be bad, St Joseph, Clearwater, Becker or some north that come to mind.

I did like living in St Cloud, pretty much everything you need is in a small area.  But I moved away, I can say for certain that in the last 5 years the crime seemed to have gotten worse up there.  Last time I was up there I had a guy run in front of me that had just been stabbed in the head, it was crazy.  My last year I lived up there I more than likely missed shooting someone by a few minutes, knock out game and my friends who I was picking up stopped the 5 guys from beating one victim.  The group got confrontational with my friends and a few of them pulled knives on my buddies.

Well if you're coming from Colorado I'd say you're moving up in the world overall in terms of gun laws. That's kinda been covered in this thread already though. In regards to politics in general, understand that while Minnesota is a fairly liberal state, it is a bit of an oddity as well. For instance, while right now we have a completely DFL-controlled government (House, Senate, and Governor), the latest attempts at gun control legislation didn't go anywhere at all. I think it has something to do with a lot of rural "Iron Rangers" (up north) that vote DFL for union reasons but are conservative otherwise. Regardless, I would say it is a liberal state, but definitely not in the New York/California/New Jersey sense. Republicans do get elected relatively often actually (last Governor was a two-term GOP candidate, for example).

From a non-political standpoint, Minnesota is actually a pretty good state to live in. It's consistently rated as one of the best states in the nation for things like education, health, quality of life, unemployment, etc., and a surprising number of Fortune 500 companies are headquartered here.  Winters can be exceptionally harsh (last winter we were often colder than Alaska or Siberia....literally), which is what we're infamous for, but summers can be surprisingly non-mild. The Twin Cities are directly on the 45th parallel, so we have very distinct seasons, which is both good and bad I guess. The craft beer situation here is excellent if that's your thing, but then again the same is true in Colorado. We also take our State Fair more seriously than just about any other state, and it is actually the biggest one in America by daily attendance.

There's no mountains here of course (well no "real" ones anyways), but for what it's worth, I believe we are one of the relatively few states that have 3 large, distinct biomes all in one state (grassland, deciduous, and coniferous forests). Outside of the Twin Cities, St. Cloud, Duluth, and Rochester, it's a pretty open, rural state. The amount of lakes we have is also staggering (look up how much shoreline MN has sometime....). The North Shore is beautiful and Duluth makes a great weekend getaway (if you can overlook the bums in downtown....I like to think of it as Minnesota's San Francisco). Additionally, I'd say that Minneapolis is big enough to be a legitimate "big" city, yet small enough to not have a legitimate ghetto problem (not even in the same ballpark as parts of Baltimore or St. Louis, etc.). St. Paul is smaller, but still a respectable size, and has some great restaurants. The road construction in the metro area in general can be abysmal in summer.

Anyways, welcome

Well, about our culture a bit:

Thanks for the additional tips, I didn't realize how bad St Cloud was getting.

Her parents have a farm North West of St Cloud, and we actually got married in St Cloud a few years ago.

I got to experience part of last years winter, we spent Christmas there and I spent a few days ice fishing.

We don't plan on settling in St Cloud, just renting there long enough to to purchase some land and build in a rural area,


Thanks again for the replies.

Oh,  and we don't have all the stupid water laws that co has. Dig a well, hit water, have a nice day. You almost always hit water.

I still like St Cloud, if your renting look at the grand river estates off of 75.  It's off the beaten path And priced well all inclusive apartment living.
Still in the Saint Cloud school district though I believe which if I lived in the area I wouldn't send my kids at least.

Thanks for the suggestion, we're hoping to find a single family home to rent, I work from home and have to many toys to live in an apartment. Schools won't be an issue for a few years.

St Cloud bad is not like Denver bad.  Even the worst parts of all of MN are not like real big city bad.  I'd worry more about the winter, half the snow, double the cold and not a single pretty mountain to look at.  It's like a chick with nice horns that never turns around.

Does the long guns needing to be cased and unloaded apply to permit holders?  When I took my first carry class back in 2003 from the late Joel Rosenburg, he stated that an uncased and loaded rifle was perfectly legal with a permit.

I don't think that a carry permit allows you to have a loaded long gun in a vehicle. It also looks like I was wrong in my post. That new law allows uncased unloaded long guns in vehicles while hunting. I can't find the legalese, but I did find this article.

That article also says handguns aren't allowed to be uncased, which isn't true for a permit holder.

Long guns:




 

Opinion on Carrying long guns in public

From what I've read and interpreted this is one of those laws that could go both ways.  And I mean both ways in the fact that someone will most likely be the test case when they are charged.  So the part of that I guess is how much you want to test the waters, and if your willing to be the test case.

Should be clear. I cut/paste right from the state.gov website. Darn clear to me, but I guess if you have a political agenda (current admin), I guess the law means what you want it to mean.


 

I'm more concerned about carrying a loaded long gun in my truck.

FIREARMS TRANSPORTATION
Unless transporting under the exceptions listed below, a person may not
transport a firearm, including a handgun, in or on a motor vehicle unless the
firearm
is:
• unloaded* and in a case made expressly for that purpose;
• unloaded* and in the closed trunk of a motor vehicle; or
• carried under a valid permit to carry a pistol or handgun.
Under the following circumstances, a person may transport unloaded,
uncased firearms (excluding pistols) in a motor vehicle, including ATVs:
• while at a shooting range with permission
• while lawfully hunting on private or public land or while travelling to or
from a site the person intends to hunt or trap or has lawfully hunted that day.
Firearms must be transported unloaded and cased:
• within Anoka, Hennepin, or Ramsey counties.
• within the boundaries of a home rule, charter, or statutory city with a population
of 2,500 or more.
• on school grounds
• as otherwise restricted in game refuges, shining, thermal imaging or night
vision laws.

* An “unloaded” firearm is defined as a firearm without ammunition
in the barrels and
magazine, if the magazine is in the firearm. A muzzle-loading firearm with a flintlock
ignition is unloaded if it does not have priming powder
in a pan. A muzzle-loading firearm
with percussion ignition is unloaded
if it does not have a percussion cap on a nipple.

This from the MN DNR website

According to that, I think I (a permit holder) can carry a loaded long gun in my vehicle.

According to the state statute, no, you cannot carry a loaded long gun in a motor vehicle even with a valid carry permit.

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=97B.045

I just took my MN permit to carry class a couple months ago and the instructor said that a carry permit does not allow you carry a loaded long gun in the vehicle.