A Young Couple Was Arrested For Letting Their Baby Put A Gun In His Mouth, And I Just Can’t Anymore

Look, I can barely understand and tolerate fully grown adults who are uncomfortably obsessed with firearms. The fetishization of guns in our country right now seems to be at a fever-pitch, which means there are plenty of complete idiots out there who can legally own and operate guns with zero education or awareness on how to use said gun. It’s really something. You don’t need to have any prior experience  OR common sense to own and use a deadly weapon, which worked out really well for two horrible people in Indiana this week.

Michael Barnes, 19, and Toni Wilson, 22, a young idiotic couple who have no business procreating, were arrested on Friday after police discovered a video on Barnes’ phone that showed Wilson’s ONE-YEAR-OLD BABY playing with a .40 caliber handgun. Allegedly Barnes can be heard in the background telling the child to say “pow.” But that’s not all. No, no, that’s not as awful as this story gets because this is America and guns and stupidity make for infinite possibilities here. A second video showed the same baby placing the muzzle of the gun in his mouth. IN HIS MOUTH. I just can’t anymore, you guys. I cannot. I don’t even know how or where to begin with how exasperating, horrifying, frightening, and just so very wrong wrong wrong this is. I feel nauseous.

Once investigators found the video of the child playing with the gun, Barnes was charged with child neglect, criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon and allowing a child to possess a firearm, police said. The baby’s mother faces the same charges after police determined she was present while the videos were being recorded. When police questioned her about the video, she apparently use “it was a pellet gun” as a defense. It is not known whether the gun was loaded (I’d like to think it was not, but I’d also like to think that there aren’t sociopathic parents out there doing things like this in the first place).

I wish I could say this story surprised me as much as it horrified me, but we’re living in a country where toddlers accidentally kill their parents and tons of kids get guns for Christmas, so… yeah. Not surprised. Just disgusted.

(Photo: Evansville Police/14News)