Cow Palace Board Votes to Ban Gun Shows, But Still Faces State's Threat of Disbandment

Succumbing to public pressure, the governing board of the Cow Palace in Daly City voted unanimously on Tuesday to ban gun shows at the state-owned arena by the end of 2019.

The move, however, was not enough to convince state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, to pull legislation that would transfer oversight of the Daly City facility from state to local control. The board only moved to end gun shows because of the threat of disbanding it, said Victor Ruiz-Cornejo, a spokesman for Wiener.

The board’s decision comes after years of efforts by Bay Area leaders to ban gun sales at the facility, including a succession of state bills dating back to 2007, all of which were ultimately vetoed by former governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown.

Gun-control groups ramped up their protests against the site’s gun shows after the February 2018 mass shooting at a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that killed 14 students and three staffers.

"This is a battle that's been brewing for over two decades,” San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa said on Tuesday. “The communities surrounding the Cow Palace earned a big victory today. ... The state should not profit off the sales of guns and now it no longer will at the Cow Palace."

The board also voted to move forward with a retail and housing project on the 68-acre property.

The Cow Palace first opened in 1941 and was primarily used for agricultural-related expositions. Over the decades, the site has hosted everything from rock concerts and flower shows to gun expositions. There have already been two gun shows at the arena this year, with three more scheduled. All of them are operated by Crossroads of the West, a Utah-based gun show event manager, whose contract with the facility expires at the end of 2019.

“We are of course disappointed that the board voted to not renew our contracts for 2020, especially considering the fact that we have been doing shows there for more than 30 years with no negative incidents ... zero,” Crossroads owner Rob Templeton said in an email to KQED.

Templeton stressed that his shows observe all local and federal regulations and have maintained strong relationships with local and state law enforcement agencies.

“Unfortunately, those who have never been to a gun show and know nothing about them have pressured the board to vote against something that they don't like,” he said.

Senate Bill 281, introduced by Wiener in February on the one-year anniversary of the Parkland shooting, would bar gun shows at the Cow Palace and transfer control from the site’s board of directors to a newly created agency composed of San Francisco and San Mateo County officials.

True to its name, the Cow Palace is currently operated by the state Department of Food and Agriculture and governed by its appointed board, placing it under state jurisdiction as opposed to city or county control.

Wiener’s legislation, which was co-authored by Assemblyman Phil Ting, a fellow San Francisco Democrat, would allow the new agency to redevelop the 68-acre property for housing and commercial space, with the option of keeping the event space operational.

“The Cow Palace is not living in the modern era,” Wiener said in February, after introducing the bill. “It’s ignoring the pleas by the local community to end the gun shows.”

Wiener said it’s high time to develop housing on the sprawling site, which includes a cavernous structure with sprawling parking lots that’s close to a Caltrain station and bus service and happens to be located “directly south of one of the tightest housing markets in the world.”

Ruiz-Cornejo, Wiener’s spokesman, said he’s confident Gov. Gavin Newsom will be more receptive to the bill, which will be heard in committee later this month, than his predecessors were. The legislation will be heard by the Senate Public Safety Committee on April 23.

Additional reporting was provided by KQED's Guy Marzorati and Bay City News Service.