I remember the Emporium from about 1952 on very well, but don't remember a gun department or gunsmith, so it may have been gone by then. My mother took us kids on a yearly pilgrimage to The City (is there any other? Not if you ask a San Franciscan....) so she could buy schoolmarm work clothes. We had the run of the downtown when she was shopping (child abuse!) and spent much of it in the gunshop/custom shop at Roos Brothers (Roos/Atkins now) where the staff showed us what was hottest at the time and let us handle the merchandise if we asked nicely (more child abuse). Letting an eight year old handle a Colt Trooper or an FN action Weatherby!!! (What an abused childhood I had.....)
