A water gun (or water pistol, squirt gun, or water blaster) is a type of toy designed to shoot water. Similar to water balloons, the primary purpose of the toy is to soak another person in a game such as water warfare.
Historically, water guns were made of metal and used rubber squeeze bulbs to load and propel water through a nozzle
Traditionally, water guns have worked on the same principle as a spray bottle. The body is essentially a container for water and the trigger is attached to a pump which squirts water out of a tiny hole at the muzzle or nozzle. However, many modern water guns employ more complex technologies to provide more power and water output than their predecessors. Modern variations may employ compressed air, rubber chambers, springs, peristaltic pumps, or hydraulic pressure to propel the water. Some even use an electric pump powered by batteries. Some employ a combination of technologies to produce better stream performance. A common term for large high pressure water guns is "water blasters".
For several years in the U.S. and Canada, import regulations and domestic laws have required squirt guns to be made of clear or tinted transparent plastic to make them harder to mistake for actual firearms.
Famous quotes containing the words water and/or gun:
“Milton says, that the lyric poet may drink wine and live generously, but the epic poet, he who shall sing of the gods, and their descent unto men, must drink water out of a wooden bowl. For poetry is not “Devil’s wine,” but God’s wine.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Though I had not come a-hunting, and felt some compunctions about accompanying the hunters, I wished to see a moose near at hand, and was not sorry to learn how the Indian managed to kill one. I went as reporter or chaplain to the hunters,—and the chaplain has been known to carry a gun himself.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)