We saw a report this week on an Illinois news web site that stated that police (in another state) had “found a pair of toy guns that were altered to fire real bullets.”

One was reported to be a Super Soaker squirt gun that “on the inside it is set up to fire shot gun shells.” The other was reported to be a toy pistol that was “rigged to fire .22 caliber bullets.”

But other reports indicate that the Super Soaker was not “set up to fire shot gun shells.” Exterior parts of the plastic squirt gun were placed over the outside of a fully-functional conventional shotgun to disguise its appearance. So a real gun was disguised as a toy gun. A toy gun was not converted to fire real ammo. We don’t know the story behind the .22.

We also have additional reports of perps with real guns painted to look like toys. So don’t go pointing any guns, toys or otherwise, at cops (or anyone else you’re not planning to shoot).