On the first day after Michigan’s gun storage law took effect to keep firearms from falling into the wrong hands, a 44-year-old man was charged with violating the rule after his three-year-old daughter shot herself in the head.

Michael Tolbert, a convicted felon, was arraigned on nine felony charges including counts of first-degree child abuse, violation of the gun storage law, felon in possession of a firearm, felon in possession of ammunition, lying to a peace officer in a violent crime investigation and four counts of felony firearm possession, according to Michigan’s Sky News.

Tolbert’s daughter, Skye McBride remained in critical condition in the hospital for days following the February 14 shooting in which she got ahold of the gun and accidentally shot herself. She is now in stable condition and able to answer questions by nodding her head her aunt, LaDorothy Griggs, told WNEM News.

McBride was visiting her father’s house when she accidentally shot herself in the right eye. The bullet exited her skull.

The state’s new safe storage gun law had only gone into effect the day before, on the first anniversary of a shooting at Michigan State University and a week after a Michigan mother, whose son killed four students at a high school, was convicted of manslaughter for her child’s actions.

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41 COMMENTS

  1. You can’t exactly expect a convicted criminal to follow firearm safe storage laws with all of the other laws they don’t follow.

  2. thank god the new law was in place. otherwise they would have had nothing to charge him with……

    • Now some prog DA can deal to drop all the other charges is he pleas guilty to the storage charge and get him back out on the street ASAP increasing the diversity. His daughter needs him after all.

      • You were soooooo close.
        His daughter needs him like she needs a hole in her head…
        too soon? Prayers for the daughter.

      • THIS is breaking news?!? A criminal leaves his gat laying around & his 3 year old shoots herself in the head. What a pos🙄

    • Sadly, you folks are missing the point of the story.

      You are correct in your supposition that this particular individual would not follow a safe storage law, or any law for that matter.

      But that’s not the important part of the story.
      The important lesson is three year olds can find and use guns that are not properly stored. And safe storage laws can indeed modify the behavior of law-abiding citizens who may be careless about the storage of their firearms.

      Or, you can claim safe storage laws are unconstitutional but the cost will be a certain number of three year olds who will find mommy’s .45ACP and shoot themselves or someone else.

      “Pro-gun activist is accidentally shot by 4-year-old son
      By Dana Ford, CNN
      Updated 6:26 AM EST, Thu March 10, 2016

      Story highlights
      Jamie Gilt, 31, is believed to be in stable condition
      Authorities want to interview her
      (CNN) A Florida woman known for a strong pro-gun stance was shot, accidentally, by her 4-year-old son, authorities said.

      Jamie Gilt, 31, was taken to a hospital after the Tuesday shooting, and is believed to be in stable condition.

      “She was sitting in the driver seat and he was in the back seat, behind her. He shot straight through. The bullet entered her lower back and exited through her abdominal area. It went through her and we recovered the round inside the vehicle. It was a .45 caliber (handgun),” Capt. Joseph Wells said.

      Authorities said the firearm was legally owned by Gilt, who maintained a Facebook page entitled “Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense,” where she regularly posted pro-gun positions. On her personal Facebook page, Gilt once bragged about her son: “Even my 4 year old gets jacked up to target shoot with the .22.”

      Really, what’s a few three year-olds when we’re considering a Constitutional Liberty!

  3. A carreer criminal breaking the law…imagine that.

    The truly sad pat is this kind of thing can, and has, happened in the home of people who are not criminals…but just irresponsible dumbasses.

  5. /begin_sarcasm

    Whew, I sure am glad that Michigan enacted that law and prevented that little girl from shooting herself. Oh, wait …

    /end_sarcasm

    On a more serious note that father deserves to spend a long time in prison for child neglect–just like he should if he left a bottle of prescription medication or poisonous liquid laying around with the cap off.

    • Negligence and endangerment come in many flavors. You are correct UC, it doesn’t matter the implement of injury, a parent is responsible if they neglect their child’s safety.

      Although it may not cause the same level of physical injury; children throughout the country are subject to injury on a daily basis from mental and emotional trauma. This injury comes from statist, socialist, communist and other “progressive” propagandists. Everyday, children are being brainwashed and manipulated. The reshaping of future generations has resulted in the loss of civility, values and independence.

      Having said that; is there any “safe storage” for the evil sophists of “progressivism” that continue to attack our children daily?

      @1215 on 1 March 2024 – Your comment is awaiting moderation

  6. What we need is a Federal Safe Storage Act but the coward Republicans will not pass such a law because they fear the criminals of NRA and other radical paranoids of the Far Right.

    Such tragedies of Little girls getting shot is unconscionable but the Paranoid Depraved Far Right scream “Losses can never be to high” when it comes to sacrificing innocent children on the Altar of “zero gun control”.

    • darcydodo…you should hop on your tricycle and go citizen arrest those you label criminal, paranoid, coward, etc…Truth be told the careless perp fits the mold of a self serving democRat like hunter biden…Apologize.

    • dacian. Your comments read like goebbels propaganda from the 40’s.

      You fascists never improve your game.

      • The style and content of his diatribes is reminiscent of propaganda from 1930s to 1950s Soviet Union, and similar to modern propaganda from the PRC and North Korea.

      • “dacian. Your comments read like goebbels propaganda“

        Interesting that you are so familiar with Goebbels propaganda.
        I guess you gotta stay current on the Party narrative, I’m sure they appreciate your loyalty.

        That’s something you share with Donald Trump, court documents in his first divorce indicated he kept an annotated book of Adolf’s speeches by his bedside and often studied late into the night

        • Shitdiggingidot..

          It’s called arming yourself with knowledge, (to steal Wm. Kirks’ byline at Washington Gun Law..)

          It’s studying “Rules for Radicals,” in order to know what their techniques are, but you already know that..

          “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
          ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

    • There was a law about safe storage. Did you not read the article?

      Or are you saying this article is false because the state already has a safe storage law and the criminal would have followed that state law?

      Or are you saying criminals only follow federal law?

      Are all of you anti-Freedom folks always this dumb?

      • “Are all of you anti-Freedom folks always this dumb?”

        That one has a PHD in ignorance. dacian forgot there was a safe storage law there and yet a multiple felon disregarded several laws.

        To paraphrase Ron White, you can’t fix dacian.

    • dacian, the perpetrator was a career criminal who would follow your much desired federal safe storage laws as much as they would follow state and federal laws prohibiting aggravated assault, murder, narcotics possession and sale, and too many more crimes to list.

      I see in you a mind filled with p0l-itical rhetoric and utterly devoid of reality and common sense.

    • What “We” need. ?
      I am I
      You are you
      And the little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home

    • I am convinced that dacian is a TTAG tool to keep the comments section of the blog spicy and draw in more readers. I think the dacian account is a patsy so the echo chamber has easy cannon fodder. Just my thoughts.

      So no one construes my opinion on gun rights, safe storage laws are unconstitutional and would not have prevented this tragedy. Safe storage would have prevented it, but not safe storage laws. The second comment on this blog post by M Kennedy nailed it!

    • dacian, is that like getting a drivers license prevents car accidents and vehicular homicide? But lets just forget that (collectively) ~ 90,000 children age 12 and under get seriously injured, some killed, in car accidents annually with drivers that had drivers licenses. Right? After all, surely a ‘drivers license’ says ‘safe always’ right? I mean, these children should have been safe in that ‘safe storage’ ‘container’ called a car, right? We have all sorts of federal laws and requirements to make that ‘safe storage’ ‘container’ called a car supposedly prevent ‘injury’ right?

      ‘Safe Storage’ would not have made one bit of difference in this tragedy. You ignore the reality that laws do not actually make people safe, its a persons compliance with a law that makes the law work and not the existence of the law. In this case it was the actions of a ‘criminal’ (a felon) and we already know that criminals choose to not obey laws. So tell me, how would a “Federal Safe Storage Act” ‘law’ written down have prevented this criminal from choosing to not obey that law?

      dacian, once again you have interpreted reality abnormally.

      1. “but the Paranoid Depraved Far Right scream ‘Losses can never be to high’ when it comes to sacrificing innocent children on the Altar of ‘zero gun control’.” —- 100% false, a lie, an unconscionable sick demented lie.

      2. “What we need is a Federal Safe Storage Act but the coward Republicans will not pass such a law because they fear the criminals of NRA and other radical paranoids of the Far Right.” —- and again 100% false, a lie, an unconscionable sick demented lie.

      just so you know folks:

      After looking into dacians real identity some its known dacian is mentally ill and under treatment by mental health professionals having been diagnosed with schizophrenia which is a serious mental health illness disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally and is associated with violent tendencies (although most will never actually become violent, but they think about it). He sees concepts of “Right Wing Fanatic” and ‘Capitalvania’ in everything.

      The majority of people with schizophrenia never become violent although those with schizophrenia do have an increased tendency toward violent behaviors of some type known to be associated with schizophrenia. But there is a category of these that will for a fact become violent in some manner and Moreno, the Lakewood shooter, as an example, was diagnosed with this particular version of schizophrenia. Which is interesting, because: All of the mass/school shooters (for the last 40 years) that lived that were actually diagnosed for mental health issues by a mental health professional either before or after their heinous acts were diagnosed with violent traits known to be associated with this same version of violent schizophrenia as Moreno had or were diagnosed directly as having this same violent version Moreno had. And those mass/school shooters (for the last 40 years) who died, an examination of their lives (including any mental health professional interaction) revealed traits known to be associated with this same version of violent schizophrenia or were directly diagnosed at some point by a mental health professional with this same version of violent schizophrenia as Moreno had, and this also includes the Nashville trans shooter.

      Most left wing ‘SJW’ ‘activists and anti-gun, and a lot of trans-people, show traits associated with schizophrenia especially the traits of interpreting reality abnormally (e.g. a lot of trans people claim and believe there is a trans genocide, in reality there is no trans genocide).

      Miner49er has also expressed traits of schizophrenia in his posts here, the interpreting reality abnormally traits along with agreeing with the left-wing facilitated and emboldened violence by ignoring its interaction thus excusing it by not considering the reality and his mental illness obsession with Trump. People with schizophrenia are frequently obsessed with a person or group they see as the ’cause of everything’ in their abnormal interpretation of reality – for Miner49er its Trump and religion and republicans, for dacian its “Right Wing Fanatic” and ‘Capitalvania’ and ‘republicans’ and their different expressions of those in various forms.

      • .40 cal:
        “After looking into dacians real identity some(,) its known dacian is mentally ill and under treatment by mental health professionals having been diagnosed with schizophrenia (etc.)”
        This is the second time I’ve seen this comment from you in as many minutes, and I am skeptical. Pray tell, how did you come by this information? Inquiring minds want to know.

        • let’s just say he’s not very good at opsec or careful about where else he posts stuff.

        • Shadow, 40oz has offered nothing to prove his claim, it’s just empty slander.

          Seemingly a sad case of projection…

      • “Miner49er has also expressed traits of schizophrenia in his posts here“

        Gee, you say that like it’s a bad thing…

        Honestly 40oz, do you expect your amateur diagnosis, informed by comments on the Internet, has any merit?

        The fact that you are willing to pontificate about others’ mental health without a history or exam, much less formal training in evaluating these conditions is indicative of a bit of cognitive deficit on your part.

        But your lurid prose is entertaining so…

        As June Carter would say… “Carry On!”

        https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI_QEZBJ3Gdf3LGiAwW9NMssfo7vHsvaN

    • this guy was already in violation of almost a dozen federal and state firearms laws. What makes you think a federal law on safe storage would have made a difference?

  7. darcydodo, “What we need is a Federal Safe Storage Act”. Yep another law that criminals will ignore as they do present laws. “Such tragedies of Little girls getting shot is unconscionable”. Indeed it is; however this tragedy is not the fault of a good citizen but rather the fault of a depraved career criminal.

    Things of this sort happen because of the actions of depraved people and not the actions of good citizens. darcydodo and others should seek out the bad guys and fully punish them. Leave the good citizens alone. Sacrificing lives is in the laps of the darcydodo types and not good citizens.

    darcydodo types never want to take any credit where it is due when innocents are killed/hurt in the gun free zones. Criminals don’t obey laws and ignore signs. A sign is just ink on a background. The darcydodo types only want to protect certain groups whereas the POTG desire to protect themselves and others around them when it is necessary which is a totally different mindset relative to safety.

  8. In Kentucky if you start your car like I did. Then leave it and go back inside. As the engine heat is defrosting the windshield glass.
    You can be arrested. If someone steals your car.
    But you can’t kill the criminal who is stealing your private property.

    Only the government can kill to protect government property.

  11. Gee, a new gun control law didn’t stop a convicted felon from violating a dozen other laws.
    Criminals don’t follow gun control laws, what a surprise!
    By definition, criminals don’t follow the law, period, so why would they obey new gun control laws? SMH

  12. From the Heller decision:

    …the requirement that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock makes it impossible for citizens to use arms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and is hence unconstitutional….

    Scalia is only speaking to trigger locks because that was the only storage device addressed in the complaint but the principle of “immediate availability” is a brush wide enough to paint ALL mandatory storage devices as violating 2A.

  13. A carreer criminal breaking the law…imagine that.

    The truly sad pat is this kind of thing can, and has, happened in the home of people who are not criminals…just irresponsible dumbasses.

  14. I keep being told that drug users are responsible people. By the folks who say if you leg @ lize drugs all the crime will go away.

    • I think that is bull, nobody is telling you that…

      That said, if you legalize drugs, the cartels, mafias and etc, WILL GO AWAY.

      • They have been saying that here on TTAG for 10 years or more. And in every liberal publication. It is their unicorn fantasy.

        And what does raising what a misdemeanor is up to $ 950, what does that have to do with making pot legal???

        The libertarians liberals on the left support that too.

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