An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a tweet from Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters saying “there is no reason for anyone to own a gun” and praising her “armed security detail.”

Verdict: False

Waters did not tweet the pictured comment. The tweet actually came from a parody Twitter account that has since been suspended.

Fact Check:

Social media users shared screen grabs of the Feb. 15, 2018, tweet this week, seemingly believing the congresswoman actually tweeted it. Waters has expressed support for gun control measures on Twitter and co-sponsored the Assault Weapons Ban of 2019.

“There is no reason for anyone to own a gun,” reads the supposed 2018 tweet from Waters. “If a home invader gets past my armed security detail (which they won’t because I hire the best), then what good is a gun going to do me? #GunControlNow.” (RELATED: Did Ted Cruz Tweet, ‘I’ll Believe In Climate Change When Texas Freezes Over’?)

In reality, the tweet didn’t come from Waters. The Twitter account @MaxinePWaters was a parody account prior to being suspended by Twitter for violating the platform’s rules, an archived version of the account shows. The account described itself as a “parody account” in its bio, according to a 2018 snapshot on Archive.is.

Waters has two verified Twitter accounts – @RepMaxineWaters and @MaxineWaters. The tweet’s remark does not appear in any of Waters’ social media posts or in ProPublica’s archive of her deleted tweets.

The inaccurate claim that the tweet came from Waters first surfaced after the deadly February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Snopes debunked the attribution to Waters that month.