Concealed carry permits in North Dakota Triple in last decade

From the Dickinson Press:

The number of concealed carry permits in North Dakota has more than tripled in the past decade, to more than 16,000. State Bureau of Criminal Investigation records show the agency issued almost 5,500 concealed carry permits in 2011, up 40 percent from the year before. Williams and Ward counties in western North Dakota had about 1,300 concealed weapons permits issued last year, or about 50 more than in Burleigh and Cass counties, which are the state’s most populous counties and located outside the oil patch. . . . Denny Magnusson, of Grand Forks, is one of 43 instructors authorized to teach the state’s mandatory concealed carry classes. Magnusson, who has been a firearms instructor for nearly two decades, said about half of the inquiries he gets are from women. “The more crime that takes place, like a rash of burglaries or a murder, the next day I get phone calls,” he said. “People don’t want to be victims.” . . .