Social media users shared a tweet about gun control attributed to Congresswoman Maxine Waters. This tweet was not actually shared by Waters, but was posted on a parody Twitter account.
Examples can be seen here, here and here.
The tweet was dated 15 February 2018 and reads: “There is no reason for anyone to own a gun. If a home intruder passes my armed security details (which they will not do, because I hire the best), then what good is a gun? #GunControlNow ”
The tweet does not appear on Waters’ official Twitter accounts twitter.com/RepMaxineWaters and twitter.com/MaxineWaters or on Politwoops, a ProPublica project that deletes archives of politicians here.
The account “@MaxinePWaters” who posted the tweet on the screenshot has since been suspended by Twitter for violating the rules twitter.com/MaxinePWaters .
An archived version of the account that was captured on February 22, 2018 shortly after the posting of the tweet is visible archive.vn/yYMCE. The report states: “The people of the 43rd District in California are barely serving. Reeking member of the House Committee on Financial Services. Parody account #INPEACH fully compliant.
Waters earlier asked for tweets for gun control here and here , published statements on shooting incidents here and here, and a ban on assault weapons in 2019 posted here.
VERDICT
Untrue. Congresswoman Maxine Waters did not post this tweet about gun control. It was posted by a Twitter account that has now been suspended.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.