To be a police chief these days you generally have to be a leftest to keep your job.
I know several local Police Chief’s in CT will deny or delay anyone who who applies for their temporary pistol permit, which is required to get the “permanent” one from the State PD, even if they pass the background check. Your only recourse to to get on a long wait list for a hearing with the state, at which point if the BG check was passed the state will force them to issue it.
When I was a student at Troy, the local Sportsman’s Club got the Sheriff to start issuing pistol permits. They told me to go ahead and apply.
The Sheriff’s assistant took my application and every time I stopped by to check, he told me the background check had not come back. After a couple of months the Sheriff’s wife was at the desk and when I asked, she went back and pulled it out and then filled out the form. It cost all of $5 I think.
I later decided that it was the assistant just putting me off hoping I would forget it eventually. I mentioned it to a member of the Club and he said it should not have taken more than a day. He said he would mention it to the Sheriff.