By Kevin Vaughan
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

ADAMS COUNTY -- It used to be billed as the "biggest and best gun show in the West," but today it has a new name.

In the wake of the Columbine High School shootings, the Tanner Gun Show has been transformed into the Tanner Hunting and Fishing Show.

"The advertising people -- and I think it's cowardice -- are running from the word 'guns,"' said Jim Tanner, who has been operating gun shows for 35 years. "I think it's a mistake to run from the word 'guns."'

Welcome to the post-Columbine world for gun lovers.

"It bothers me," Tanner said. "I don't think you should do it. Guns is not a four-letter dirty word."

And Saturday at the Merchandise Mart hundreds of people packed into the show where the main feature was, of course, guns. It was the first Tanner show since the April 20 attack on Columbine.

You could also find knives and sleeping bags, paintings and Beanie Babies, backpacks and books.

But all those other wares were vastly outnumbered by guns, including at least two different TEC-DC9 semiautomatic pistols like the one carried by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold the day they attacked their high school. The price tag: $595 for one, $799 for the other.

And there wasn't a fishing rod in sight.

Tanner's operation came under fire after the assault on Columbine after federal agents determined that three of the weapons used in the attack were bought at one of his shows late last fall.

Hence the new name for the show.

Tanner wasn't alone in his assessment of the new name for his gathering.

"What's the difference if you change the name?" asked Sergey Shakhmayev, publisher of a Russian newspaper in the Denver area, as he stood outside waiting for a friend. "It doesn't matter what the tool is.

"It matters what's inside the person that buys the weapons."

His friend agreed.

"Now they're trying to pick on people with guns," said Andrew Serdyuk. "Guns didn't kill -- those two a------- killed."

With other gun enthusiasts, the subject is still a touchy one. Several declined to be interviewed, and others didn't want to give their names.