When I was young, there were quite a number of gunshops in SF excluding any pawn shops:
1) Val's Gunshop on Columbus between Lombard and Chestnut. Valentino Giannini, a Switzer, crossed the River Styx. Much of his equipment was purchased by Frank Tabor who operated a gunshop in San Bruno, CA. I have Val's 5'6" display case which is now filled with 1/1200 ship models.
2) SF Gun Exchange on 2nd near Mission St. They used to be on 5th St. and I have vague recollections of them moving to 2nd. The founder was Nate Posner and I bought my Civil War saber from him for $65. When Nate passed, his son and daughter, Bob and Beth took over.
3) Markell's, Judah near 44th Ave. Used to buy their reloaded 38 WC for $5 a bag of 50. Good memories from that store. Didn't care for it when the nephew took over. Markell's closed down and concentrated on their store in Marin Co. They were very pro-police and supported the local matches.
4) Bob Chow (later High Bridge). He represented the US during the Olympics. An early smith who specialized in 1911s, he believed that it was a mistake to adopt the M-9. The 1911 he argued, could be serviced by a GI with very few tools. When he died, it became High Bridge and initially specialized in shotguns for trap and skeet.
5) 2211 Clement Street. West Coast Arms? That was operated by William B. Edwards, editor of Guns Magazine. He closed down and went to Virginia when I was still a child. Met him many years later.
After Y2K, I'd visit some old store in South San Francisco on Grand Ave. I don't recall the name. Bought a S&W box for a N frame for $20 from them. They also had a half dozen boxes of old Markells reload for $5 each which I grabbed up.
Tabor Engineering's Frank Tabor used to be on El Camino Real in San Bruno. He retired last year. There was another on El Camino Real (1989-90) that lasted only a few years.
There was also a store in Pacifica but that closed three decades ago. A newer store opened up about two decades ago but I've never been in it. Finally, SF Park & Rec used to operate a range in Pacifica. It was only a 20 minute drive but that was closed around '84 by Comm. Mary Burns. I was happy when she was among the first ones sacked by Sindaco Guillermo Bruno (Willie Brown).
Since homeless was mentioned, there were only drunks when I was a kid and they stayed south of Market St. Cross Market and Southern Station picked them up. The Civil Rights movement changed that and the rif-raff moved onto Market. The '90s was when I started seeing a lot of homeless there. Despite what Bubba in the Whine Haus said, I knew something was wrong with the economy. The election of a liberal mayor (Art Agnos) meant that policing stopped in Civic Center Park which is across the street from City Whore (Hall). It became Campos de Agnos (I called it that) and you didn't have to go to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Marin to see the unwashed cook in public, sleep in public, become inebriated in public, wield cudgels, fists and feet and stabby things on one anther in public, defecate, urinate and fornicate just like in the medieval days. When the new mayor had the police clean them out, they scattered throughout the city and especially in Golden Gate Park (check out Hippy Hill). They even came to my neighborhood (West Portal). Never used to see beggars there.
The city spends over millions every year on homeless and it only gets worse. You can't fix it in a declining economy.
Commuting bewen SF and Illinois? I'd envy the dead.