# Firearm-rights restoration petitions *Petitions to restore firearm rights in Dakota County, Minnesota, as counted in 2024.* Firearm-rights restoration petitions are requests to have a person's firearm rights restored. The only count in this record is for Dakota County. As of February 2024, Fox 9 reported that the county had processed 27 such petitions: 14 granted, 6 denied, and 7 pending.[^1] One of the six denials was a 2020 restoration denial for a man named Gooden. The report describes the denial as a court holding.[^1] The record assembled here does not include the order itself, the statute under which petitions are decided, or any statewide count. ## What The Dakota County petitions are recorded in three outcomes as of February 2024: granted, denied, and pending.[^1] The reported figure of 2020 for the Gooden denial comes from the same report, which is the only source in this record for both the denial and the county data.[^1] No enactment, amendment, governing body, or party affiliation for the restoration process appears in the record. The record therefore does not establish who designed or maintains the process, or when. ## How many - 27 petitions processed in Dakota County as of February 2024.[^1] - 14 granted.[^1] - 6 denied, including the 2020 Gooden denial.[^1] - 7 pending.[^1] The three outcome counts add up to the 27 petitions reported as processed.[^1] ## In the at-issue record The project's Dakota County claims-exposure matrix (dated September 2, 2026) records the 27-petition count and the Gooden denial in its section on use of force.[^1] The matrix states that the denial "had no effect on whether he possessed firearms". That statement is the matrix's own, resting on a single news source, and no primary order or agency record in this record tests it.[^1] The same matrix lists a separate firearms entry. A federal indictment of [[Ashley Dyrdahl]] for straw purchasing was announced on March 14, 2024.[^2] She was sentenced to 45 months on September 10, 2025.[^3] The record assembled here does not state how that case relates to the Gooden denial. ## Notes [^1]: Fox 9, *Burnsville gunman wanted his firearm rights restored; this is why the system blocked him* (date not in record) — reports the Gooden firearm-rights restoration denial (2020) and Dakota County's count of 27 petitions as of February 2024 (14 granted, 6 denied, 7 pending). https://www.fox9.com/news/burnsville-gunman-wanted-his-firearm-rights-restored-this-is-why-the-system-blocked-him [^2]: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, *press release on the straw-purchase indictment of Ashley Dyrdahl* (March 14, 2024) — establishes the indictment and its date. https://www.atf.gov/news/press-releases/burnsville-woman-indicted-straw-purchasing-firearms-used-fatal-shooting-three-first [^3]: CBS News Minnesota, *Ashley Dyrdahl sentencing* (September 10, 2025) — reports the 45-month sentence. https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/ashley-dyrdahl-sentencing-burnsville-first-responder-shooting/