In an article focused on advice for mothers, Popsugar magazine warns that water guns should not be allowed in the home because they “normalize” real guns.

The author of the article, Lauren Levy, stresses that her mother had some non-negotiables in their home, and a ban on water guns was one of them.

After recounting how she grew up in a home lacking either water guns or real ones, Levy writes:

These “toys” are also sending mixed messages and diluting the most important ones: guns are no joke. Guns aren’t innocent, even if they are “harmless” and in plastic form. These are weapons that can end lives, and as much as we want to teach our kids about gun control and safety, we contradict ourselves the second we allow them to run around with toy versions to shoot their friends.

She adds:

Popular water guns also make light of a very serious situation. There are some children who will never smile again — all because someone picked up a gun. At the same time, we have little ones playing and laughing over the very thing that is killing other kids. It just isn’t right.

Levy says it is acceptable to buy “water shooting toys” that are not shaped like guns; she calls them “water squirters.” Even though the squirters may shoot water further, faster, or harder than “water guns,” it is okay because they do not look like guns.

In the end, the difference between a water gun and a “water squirter” is moot. Either way, kids are shooting each other with their toys.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.