The St Louis thug department is being criticized for publicly warning about toy guns that look real.

The advice was not a threat, and it was wise. People should not give children toy guns that look real, unless the children are mature enough and trained enough to handle a real gun properly — to do so invites many kinds of trouble, starting with scaring people, even if thugs do not get involved.

This is independent of the many cases where thugs have wrongfully killed adults and children.