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Dance Moms' Under Fire for Gun-Toting Routine

Dance Moms' Under Fire for Gun-Toting Routine

"She said we were going to blow the competition away."

The often eye-popping reality TV show "Dance Moms" took the show's signature fireworks to new heights Tuesday when the show's young dancers were taught a routine involving plastic gun props.

"Dance Moms," for the uninitiated, follows a group of competitive young girls under the tutelage of acerbic dance instructor Abby Lee Miller and their equally competitive and often catty mothers, who often clash with Miller's harsh teaching style.

On the latest episode of the Lifetime channel hit, the dance moms weren't thrilled to see their daughters waving gold guns around in their new group routine "Private Eyes."

"I'm going to arm you with a secret weapon...you're going to be using guns in your routine," Miller told her dancers during the episode. She later barked, "Be strong with that gun!"

The Huffington Post noted:

Although dancer Maddie said that the fake prop guns wouldn't inspire her to pick up a real gun, the moms agreed that having their daughters use them in their routine seemed inappropriate and unnecessary.

Nia's mom Holly questioned Abby Lee Miller about the wisdom of using the guns.

"The caliber," she said, presumably with no pun intended, "of the piece, it doesn't seem as high as what you normally put out there for the girls. The guns ... as moms it's throwing us off a bit. It seems a bit aggressive."

Still, Miller defended her choice of prop, saying she wanted her dancers to enter their upcoming competition "armed and dangerous."

"I've done children with guns and it won everything, she said. "It was a piece of brilliant work."

The show's confessional-style format featured dancer Chloe's wide-eyed explanation of the routine.

"She said we were going to blow the competition away," she said. "I really hope she doesn't mean literally. Because we could get disqualified."

But by the end of the episode, it seems the moms were won over after watching their daughters perform the routine on stage.

"I wish I could say I was horrified with the guns. But they were better than I thought," one mom said.

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