My bet is the local, anti-gun, New Jersey police chief was conveniently placing the blame on the "faceless, nameless, anonymous bureaucrats in state and federal agencies" to get the heat off of him. Why would those identical background checks be processed so quickly for Florida, but be so "slow" in New Jersey, your previous residence?
My guess is that the local rulers/powerbrokers didn't want guns in their fiefdom and simply erected barriers wherever they could get away with it. Many people without your tenacity simply would have given up and thrown in the towel. You did a good thing by holding their feet to the fire.
~ Blue Jays ~
Hi! That's precisely the problem when your dealing with multiple layers of entrenched bureaucracies -- you never know WHO or what is at fault.
I don't know what the feelings of the local chief were. If he was anti-gun he could pass the buck and blame the state or federal bureaucracies. On the other hand, maybe we were both victims of the process.
It's just proves the old adage about vast, anonymous bureaucratic systems: When ALL are accountable, then NONE is.
Even today when computerized verification is readily available, many anti-gun states erect sufficient other barriers to stall or impede the process. And just who is involved at the federal level? The FBI? Alcohol, Tobacco,and Firearms (ATF)? And just what other data do they have on us that may improperly influence their decisions?
It's important for individuals to realize that we're not dealing with transparent, accountable entities.
In NJ I had a fellow gun owner who knew someone in the state legislature (he was in the Assembly) and even he was astonished at the bureaucratic quagmire and had great difficulty getting answers!
In another post I described this procedure as Kafka-esque. I still think that's the best description.