The Detroit News has tallied the number of safe storage violations charged under Public Act 17 of 2023 during 2024. PA 17 was devised to criminalize keeping loaded firearms at the ready within homes. It has mostly been enforced in high crime neighborhoods, where homeowners feel particularly insecure. The number of convictions in the 36 cases charged across Michigan was not tallied by the Detroit News, and will probably have to come from MDoC:
Result of Michigan's safe storage gun law: Charges against parents, grandparents, cousins
By Kara Berg - February 12, 2025One year after Michigan lawmakers passed a law designed to ensure children don't get ahold of guns and hurt themselves or others, it's been used 36 times in counties across the state, though most cases are still working their way through the courts.
Charges have been filed against parents, grandparents and cousins. In one case in Macomb County, a babysitter was charged. Most of the charges were filed in Michigan's most populous counties: seven in Wayne, five in Macomb, four in Genesee, four in Kent, three in Oakland and two in Newaygo on the west side of the state.
The law — which went into effect on Feb. 13 last year — requires individuals to keep unattended weapons unloaded and locked with a locking device or stored in a locked box or container if it is reasonably known that a minor is likely to be present on the premises.
"(The law) has given us a tool we could've sorely used when we were charging these back in the day," Worthy said. "When this law first passed after the eight of nine years of work we did, I was very happy. I'm happy we have tools we can use to make sure people are held accountable for this."
In the Newaygo County case, the grandparents of 5-year-old Braxton Dykstra were charged after another child got ahold of an unsecured gun and shot Braxton in April 2024, killing him.
Braxton's father, Dominyk Dykstra, said it blows his mind to see how many deaths and injuries happened, even after the law went into effect a year ago Thursday.
Braxton's grandparents, Karl and Theresa Robart, were charged with a safe storage violation in connection with his death. Karl was sentenced to just over three to 15 years in prison, and Theresa was sentenced to a year in jail for second-degree child abuse.
"It's all common sense. Like come on, people, wake up," Dykstra said. "I thought after my son's passing it was going to wake everyone up because it went big, nationwide."
After the state's safe storage law was passed, advocates talked about the need for education with gun owners so they understood what was required. And at least one attorney said the need still exists.
Terry Nolan, Theresa Robart's attorney, said his client had no idea the safe storage existed — nor did many others Nolan talked to — before grandson Braxton's death. Nolan said Theresa Robart had no control over the weapons and did not interact with them. She had told her husband a few days prior to Braxton’s death to move the gun, Nolan said, but he didn’t.
"All the letters submitted (to the court) talked about how much she loved her grandchildren. She took care of them. She was a loving, nurturing grandmother," Nolan said. "There needs to be more education to the community in general about the law. It's a pretty extreme law. ... It's better if more people know about it to put them on alert that this can happen in their home too."
Nolan called the case against Theresa Robart one of the saddest cases he’s ever handled. Karl Robart's attorney, John Greer, declined to comment.
How the law came about
Today, 26 states, including Michigan, have safe gun storage laws, according to the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates for gun control and against gun violence.
The intent of the laws is to try to prevent kids from gaining access to unsafely stored guns and hurting themselves or others with them.
Michigan's law went into effect on Feb. 13, 2024, the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Michigan State University that left three students dead and five injured.
Michael Tolbert was the first person charged under the safe storage law after his 2-year-old daughter Skye McBride was critically injured after she shot herself in the face. Tolbert of Flint is accused of first-degree child abuse, lying to police and seven weapons charges, including failing to safely store his gun. He is set to go to trial May 7 in Genesee County Circuit Court and faces up to 15 years in prison.
At least 13 of the 36 cases charged this past year involved parents. One case in Warren involved a babysitter who allegedly left a gun unsecured under a pillow, resulting in a 2-year-old shooting himself in the stomach. In another case, a Grand Rapids homeowner was charged with allegedly failing to secure his gun after a 15-year-old family member was shot in the shoulder.
Individuals who leave their gun unsecured and a child possesses it or exhibits it in a reckless or threatening manner could be sentenced to up to 93 days in prison. If a child hurts himself, herself or someone else, they can face up to five years in prison; if a child seriously injures himself, herself or others, 10 years; and if a child kills himself, herself or someone else, 15 years.
The key to making law work
Even before the safe storage law was passed, Worthy said her office had been charging these types of cases for years. Worthy worked behind the scenes to get this law passed, she said. Wayne County has filed more of these cases than anyone else.
After a 3-year-old was shot in late January with an unsecured gun, Worthy was blunt in her message to gun owners.
"Store. Your. Guns. This is one-plus-one stuff. This isn’t rocket science," the Democratic Wayne County prosecutor said in a statement.
Repetition is key in making sure people are aware of the law and are storing their guns safely so kids do not get hurt or hurt someone else with them, Worthy said. She is on Michigan's gun violence prevention task force and said they have been working on ways to educate the public on safe storage.
"This is totally, 100% preventable," Worthy said. "If you have a deadly weapon in your home and you have children in your home, you need to take a few seconds and safely store it. ... You have to take steps to protect that child."
Free gun locks are available throughout the state at police departments and some health departments and hospitals. Locations for free locks are available online.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said while it’s difficult to tell what impact the law is making — since these charges are mostly filed only after something bad happens — it brings awareness to the importance of keeping kids safe from gun violence.
The Oakland prosecutor said the country can’t prosecute its way out of gun violence; education and community involvement are key. McDonald launched the All of Us Foundation in June to address gun violence as a public health crisis.
“I think the passing of the law is one of the reasons that people are more aware than they were maybe four years ago,” said McDonald, a Democrat. “One of the things we’re doing in the foundation I started is really treating gun violence as a public health crisis. We all know that it is critical to put kids in safe car seats. We know that because there has been a public health approach to educating people. We have to treat gun violence the same way and make sure people understand safely storing weapons is one piece of it.”
The firearm industry has been focused on keeping firearms safe for years, said Mark Oliva, managing director of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which runs the Project Child Safe program that distributes free gun locks and educates the public on gun safety.
The project partners with 15,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States and has distributed 40 million free gun locks to people, Oliva said. In Michigan since 2020, they have distributed 72,000 locks, he said.
"The concern with many of these laws is that this is a law that’s really only enforceable after something tragic has happened," Oliva said. "Education is a better effort on this to ensure people who are gun owners understand what storage options are."
Unintended consequences of the law
Macomb County Prosecutor Pete Lucido said while it's difficult to tell how the safe storage law is affecting people, he does know that the outcomes of cases do not always benefit the children.
He pointed to the case of Theo Nichols, a Warren resident who was charged after his 8-year-old son shot himself in the head when he was reaching for his iPad on top of a kitchen cabinet and found a gun up there as well.
Michigan Child Protective Services tried to terminate Nichols' parental rights, Lucido said, but the judge declined to do so.
"There's no justice in this," said Lucido, a Republican. "The only justice I see is the case is concluded with the child living. ... The parent did wrong, there's no doubt about it. It's a matter of life and death. But the repercussions and the trauma the child already suffered is exacerbated by not having a parent at home."
Nichols' attorney, Noel Erinjeri, declined to comment on his case. Nichols is charged with second-degree child abuse, felony firearm and a violation of the safe storage law.
The Macomb County prosecutor said he's in favor of laws that prevent or mitigate children's injuries or deaths from guns, but an unintended consequence of the safe storage law is breaking up families, especially those where parents may have made a terrible decision.
"The outcomes are detrimental in almost every case when it's dealing with death or an injury," Lucido said. "Are we doing the best thing for the children after all these pieces are broken all over the place?"
Cultural differences with guns
Roscommon County Prosecutor Michael Edwards, who has charged no cases under the new law, said he believes the northern Michigan county's hunting culture affects how people treat guns. Roscommon County is about 190 miles north of Detroit.
"Being in a hunting area, gun safety is ingrained in the way of life in Lower Northern Michigan," Edwards said. "I feel that this is one reason we have not seen any safe gun storage issues."
Houghton County Prosecutor Dan Helmer agreed. He was raised in the Upper Peninsula but worked in Kent County for the first 13 years of his career, and he said he's seen a difference in how guns are used. They're a part of every household, so gun safety is no joke, he said.
"Often that means generations grow up being taught the importance of safe storage and respect for such deadly weapons," Helmer wrote in an email. "I can't tell you how many times growing up my dad told me 'Treat EVERY gun as if it were loaded, even if you just checked it' and 'the only reason you point a gun at something or someone is to kill them, so don't ever do it unless that's what you intend on doing!'"
'Never get justice'
Dykstra, whose son Braxton was killed, said he didn't feel like prosecutors should have offered the Robarts a plea deal. He also was frustrated that the mother of the 6-year-old who shot Braxton wasn't charged, as he said it was "her lack of parenting, her lack of teaching her child not to touch guns" that led to Braxton's death. He taught his children firearm safety since they were young because he hunts and has guns in the house.
"I'll never get justice for my son," Dykstra said. "No amount of anything will ever bring him back."
Braxton was a “little daredevil” and a mini version of his father, Dykstra said. He had no fear and loved to ride his bike over rocks and bumps in the driveway. He wanted to be a dirt bike trick rider when he grew up, something Dykstra said he also loves.
“He was an excellent kid,” Dykstra said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better son.”
Now, Dykstra is going around to elementary schools to teach firearm safety to kids and make sure they know not to touch a gun if they see it lying around. He was angry at first, but now he just wants to make a difference.
"We shouldn't have to have a law; that's the issue," Dykstra said. "It's common sense, and I've been taught my whole life not to touch the guns. I never touched them. I taught my kids the same way. Sadly, they were somewhere we thought they could be trusted."
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