Learn Spanish (Latin America): El espía tiene un arma, ¡no la toques!

In negative commands (telling someone not to do something), object pronouns like la must go directly between the word no and the verb. If this were a positive command (Touch it!), the pronoun would attach to the end of the verb instead: ¡tócala!

The sentence says un arma, which looks masculine. Why do we use the feminine pronoun la to refer to it?

The noun arma is actually feminine. However, because it starts with a stressed a sound, Spanish uses the masculine article un (or el) just to avoid the awkward double a sound of una arma. Since the noun itself remains feminine, any pronouns or adjectives referring to it must still be feminine, which is why we use la here.

The verb is tocar (an -ar verb). Why does the negative command end in -es (toques)?

To tell someone informally (tú) not to do something, Spanish uses a different set of endings. For -ar verbs like tocar, the ending swaps to -es. (This form comes from the subjunctive mood, which is always used for negative commands).

Why is there a qu in toques instead of a c?