Cow Palace gun show draws crowds and protesters

Employees move a sign into place as a man carries boxes of ammunition during the Crossroads of the West gun show at the Cow Palace in Daly City, Calif. on Saturday, April 14, 2018. Employees move a sign into place as a man carries boxes of ammunition during the Crossroads of the West gun show at the Cow Palace in Daly City, Calif. on Saturday, April 14, 2018. Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close Cow Palace gun show draws crowds and protesters 1 / 30 Back to Gallery

Right at the northern edge of Daly City and the southern edge of San Francisco, hundreds came out to a gun show Saturday to look at the latest firearms on display. But they wouldn’t walk out with any.

There’s a 10-day waiting period to get a gun in California — the state with some of the strictest laws in the country governing sales at gun shows.

Still, the Crossroads of the West gun show, which continues Sunday at the Cow Palace, always attracts a steady stream of more than 1,000 firearms enthusiasts — and this year a handful of protesters. As a national, youth-led movement on gun control and safety maintains its momentum, the controversial Daly City show brought out gun supporters ranging from families with young children to military veterans.

“This tragic event in Parkland, Fla., has energized people on both sides. People are so polarized it’s difficult to have a dialogue,” Bob Templeton, owner of the gun show, said Saturday. “But I think there’s a lot of common ground that we have. We all want to eliminate violence with guns, and misuse of guns, and we all want to protect our kids.”

Some yards away from the entrance, a small group of Bay Area high school students stood in protest, arguing in particular that the show has “dangerous rhetoric around anti-gun control.”

David Gales, 17, held up a sign that said, “Send the gun show packing.” He and his classmate, Natalie Keim, organized the demonstration outside the show, just a couple of miles from Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco, which they both attend.

“People really don’t like this gun show. Over the past couple of years it’s really kind of declined,” Gales said. “There’s been a lot of debate about whether or not the Cow Palace should be having gun shows at all and the local popular opinion has been pretty strongly against it.”

At the arena, everything from ammo and holsters to rifles and handguns was on display — all compliant with California regulations. That means magazines at the event are limited to 10 rounds, for instance.

The show is monitored by enforcement officers with the California Department of Justice Bureau of Firearms, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Daly City police officers to make sure the laws are being followed, Templeton said.

Crossroads of the West’s traveling gun show reaches across the nation, and this year’s San Francisco stop coincided with a day of rallies by gun rights supporters at state capitals across the country. The rallies serve as a response to protests against gun violence in the wake of a mass shooting that killed 17 people at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

As the gun debate magnifies, some at the show had a laissez-faire take. Longtime friends Robert Anderson and Randy McManus leaned against a railing outside the show, laughing as McManus smoked a cigar.

Anderson said he favors shooting with .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire cartridges. For McManus, it’s .22s. They’ve been attending the show off and on for 20 years and say it’s just a way to feed a hobby.

“Gun stuff,” Anderson said. “It is what it is. Everybody has their opinions. I’m OK with that. You have your opinions about guns. I have my opinions about guns.”

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno