Up. The chief of police is the issuing authority for LTC's. The problem is each chief has his/her little fiefdom and does things their way. Contrary to what the statute reads, some chiefs add things to the requirements, such as you must qualify every renewal, you must belong to a gun club, some will only issue a Class B and if you're a "good boy" they might bump you up to a class A, when you renew in 5 years. The state recommends the license be issued for all lawful purposes and some chiefs will only issue for target and hunting or sporting purposes. Sporting purposes?? Does that mean for golfers, ball players, etc.? I handled licensing for my department and our chief although being on the left of center, was surprisingly very liberal when it came to issuing licenses. The executive office of public safety has warned the chiefs to comply with written statute or they could lose the authority to issue licenses to the state police. The EOPS has an approved list of firearms which conflicts with the anti-gun Harshbarger who was the attorney general who came up with his own list. He has since been prosecuted and admitted that what he did was illegal, but it's still on the books. Massachusetts........the name says it all!