Indiana couple arrested after video shows toddler playing with handgun

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Police have charged a couple in Evansville, Ind., after videos taken from a man's cell-phone show a toddler playing with a .40-caliber handgun.

(Screen shot from YouTube)

Cell-phone videos showing a 1-year-old child playing with a handgun have led to the arrest of an Indiana couple.

Michael Barnes, 19, along with the child's 22-year-old mother, Toni Wilson, of Evansville, Ind., have been charged with child neglect, criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, and allowing a child to possess a firearm, reports Fox News.

The videos were discovered by police last week after Barnes was arrested and accused of trying to sell an undercover officer a handgun through Facebook, reports the Evansville Courier & Press. Fox reports Barnes had an active warrant on a charge of armed robbery and he did not have a permit for the handgun.

Barnes is preliminarily charged with carrying a handgun without a permit and resisting law enforcement, the reports. He also faces an additional weapons charge because he was within 500 feet of an elementary school when first confronted by law enforcement.

At one point the videos show the child put the .40-caliber handgun in his mouth, according to the Associated Press. Barnes can be heard telling the child to say "pow" on multiple occasions while the toddler plays with the gun. (Go here to see a video; warning, contains graphic language.)

"A lot of things we see are very upsetting, frustrating or disgusting, but this is sad," Sgt. Jason Cullum tells the Courier & Press. "Gun ownership is a right in America, but it's also a responsibility. If you see a 12-month-old being taught to play with a gun, by the time they're 10 or 12 years old, they have no qualms to pick up a gun. They have no issue pulling the trigger."

Police say the mother told officers the child was holding a pellet gun, the AP reports. Police say the gun's magazine appeared to be removed but it's not clear if ammunition was in the chamber.

The boy and the couple's 1-month-old twins were placed into emergency care, Evansville Police tell Fox News. Barnes is not the father of the 1-year-old but is the father of the twins, reports

Barnes is being held in jail without bond.