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Parents Arrested for Photographing of Baby With Handgun
A couple who decided to give their eleven-month-old and five-year-old guns and photograph the kids playing with them is now in jail.
And the parents still think it was all just fun and games!
The NY Post pulled court papers and found mom Amanda Haynes told the cops ” she thought it would be funny to take the photos with the kids and the guns.”
Whether the guns were loaded or not hasn’t been released – but Haynes and her boyfriend have been charged with criminal possession of a weapon . . . which means SOMETHING illegal happened. They were caught when the pics they took and e-mailed to friends were sent to child protective services.
The good news (well, besides these boneheads’ arrest): the kids will totally have a case to get themselves on I Hate My Parents, my new favorite Tumblr, home to the pics of babies posing near swear words made from their refrigerator magnets and toddlers toting beer bottles.
It’s sites like those where these sort of pictures generally crop up, usually older pictures of little boys with coon-skin caps and a six-shooter (see above, a picture of author Michael Spooner at two with a real gun). By looks alone, a large number likewise pre-date the rules that required people register their guns (Spooner’s among them – his dad bought the gun in 1956).
Do you think this was a parenting fail of arrest-worthy proportions or just a plain old parenting fail?
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[...] Search for “arrested for photographing” on Google, and you’ll comes up with over a quarter of a million entries, including the one about parents arrested for photographing their very young children holding handguns. [...]
No We Can’t « The Bigger Picture commented on Dec 16 09 at 8:09 amSarah commented on Sep 09 09 at 2:24 pmIf the guns weren’t loaded, I don’t see how the children were endangered. Obviously it’s not smart to let kids think that guns are toys, but I don’t see why CPS should be involved if that’s all that happened.
Bluster commented on Sep 09 09 at 3:22 pmWhat wasn’t said, but might be important, was that the kids were being equipped to rob a piggy bank.
diera commented on Sep 09 09 at 5:01 pmColor me clueless, but it would never occur to me that this would be something you could be arrested for. Tacky, yes; illegal, no. Is there actually a law against letting a child hold an unloaded gun? An unloaded gun is a hunk of metal, which I suppose the child could drop on his/her foot, but otherwise poses no special danger. Would it be illegal to let a little kid hold a realistic-looking fake gun? It’s illegal and dangerous to let little kids drive; would it be illegal to take a picture of your kid sitting in the driver’s seat pretending to turn the wheel, as long as the car isn’t running and the keys are in your pocket?
Of course, I’m assuming the guns weren’t loaded. If they were then these people were insane.
carefree childhood commented on Sep 09 09 at 5:30 pmIf you read the article they were arrested for endangering the welfare of a child, criminal possession of a weapon and possession of marijuana. As I recall from the other articles I read on this, emailing the photos to a friend who forwarded them to CPS was enough to get them investigated but what got them arrested was the fact that when the CPS visited their house they had marijuana sitting around in the open.
jeannesager commented on Sep 09 09 at 5:38 pmCarefree – I totally agree on the marijuana part. Perhaps the better way to pose the question is whether this should have prompted the CPS investigation alone? I honestly am not sure how I feel about that part. I am not a big gun person, personally, but then again as diera said, there are plenty of fake guns and an unloaded gun poses no danger.
I’m not really coming down on behalf of these parents, however!
carefree childhood commented on Sep 09 09 at 11:16 pmReading between the lines I think, although I do not know, that the parents emailed the photos to a “friend” who already thought they were neglecting their children and the photos gave the “friend” something to show to CPS but the photos weren’t the only reason the “friend” suggested CPS investigate.
Robyn commented on Sep 10 09 at 3:36 pmShould the pics have prompted an investigation? Probably – the viewers had no way of knowing what the purpose of the photos was, if the guns were loaded or legal, etc.
I got my husband a flask as a present one year, and my 5 month old grabbed it (empty, of course) and put it in his mouth. We took a picture, but we knew that if it ever got out, it could prompt CPS to come on over.
Lynn commented on Sep 10 09 at 7:54 pmThat is a black powder gun; should not require registration.
Stephanie commented on Mar 23 10 at 3:03 pmIf the guns weren’t loaded then how is this any different than letting kids play with toy guns. Remember cowboys and indians, water guns, nerf throwing guns, painball guns, BB guns, even the Wii has a game that involves a plastic gun…..
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