Actually Minnesota is well behind the times. Virginia did the same thing about ten years ago. As an investigator for a Sheriffs Dept, I had the additional duty of doing those investigations with the onus on the person requesting the permit to prove his need to carry the weapon (such as habitualy carrying large sums of money as a course of business). And frankly I turned down way more than I approved. (It was one of these background investigations which became the beginning of the Lyndon LaRouche case, resulting in numerous convictions for loan fraud, tax evasion, and other white collar crimes of he and many of his followers.)

But the case that brought it up was Oliver North, who applied for a permit in another County and was turned down by the local Democrat Sheriff. Not only did the State pass emergency legislation for him to get one, but they then went ahead to liberalize the laws to put the onus on the Sheriff's Dept to prove why the requester shouldn't get a permit.

But even though I was not happy with the numbers of people who were requesting and getting concealed weapons permits, I have to admit that there has been no outbreak of shooting in Virginia, and according to an article I read several month ago, there have been a few cases of misuse, but a greater number of times where the weapon was used to stop a crime. Go figure...