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An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a tweet by Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters saying, There is no such thing as a responsible gun owner. Facebook/Screenshot Verdict: False There is no record of Waters sending such a tweet. The tweet was sent by a now-suspended parody account. Fact Check: The Facebook post shows what appears to be a screen grab of a tweet sent by Waters. The tweet reads: Every single gun owner I have talked to has told me, ‘As soon as I walked out of that gun store, I felt a killer growing inside of me.’ When will we acknowledge there is no such thing as a responsible gun owner? Waters, however, never sent such a tweet. Check Your Fact searched Waters’ verified Twitter accounts — @MaxineWaters and @RepMaxineWaters — but found no instances of the remark. ProPublica’s archive of her deleted tweets likewise showed no such tweet. The comment does not appear on her website , or in the congressional record either. Furthermore, the screen grabbed tweet shows it was sent by the account @MaxinePWaters, not one of Waters’ verified accounts. An archived screen grab of the account from 2018 shows that the bio section of the account described it as a parody account. The account has since been suspended for violating Twitter rules. (RELATED: Did The US Have Zero Mass Shootings While Donald Trump Was President?) Waters has been a vocal proponent for gun policy reform, and co-sponsored the Assault Weapons Ban of 2019 , a bill that aimed to prohibit manufacturing, selling and possessing semiautomatic assault weapons, according to its description from the Congressional Research Service, though the bill did not pass the House. In a June 2016 sit-in with other Democratic representatives on the House floor to demand a vote on gun control legislation, Waters said, I am prepared to stay here until hell freezes over, USA Today reported . This is not the first time a tweet about gun control has been incorrectly attributed to Waters. Check Your Fact in February debunked the baseless claim that Waters sent a tweet saying, There is no reason for anyone to own a gun.
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