The father of a 4-year-old boy who accidentally shot a playmate in the head last month should have to answer to more than his guilty conscience.

Authorities were right to arrest Anthony Senatore, 33, for keeping his five guns and ammo in easy reach of his three kids, and to escort him to jail on charges of child endangerment. No way was this "grandstanding," as his attorney has complained.

Senatore’s 4-year-old son, the youngest of three siblings, grabbed his father’s .22-caliber rifle last month while playing “pretend shooting” with a 6-year-old neighbor, and fatally shot the other boy.

The father’s prosecution now sends a much-needed message to other parents who own firearms. You’d think it would be obvious that guns should be kept away from children, but it isn’t. For all the talk of responsible gun ownership in this country, accidents like this are not just freakish aberrations.

More than 1.69 million young people under 18 live in homes with loaded and unlocked firearms, a 2005 study found. In 2010 alone, 606 people, 62 of them children younger than 15, died in accidental shootings.

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In New Jersey, anyone who knows that a child younger than 16 could access a loaded firearm in the home is required to secure it, or install a trigger lock. But there’s little enforcement of the law, and violating it is nothing more than a disorderly persons offense. Until someone dies.

So to prevent tragedies, what we really need is a cultural change. Statistics show parents are more likely to buckle their kid's seat belt than store a gun safely.

We have the right laws in place. Now it’s up to authorities to publicize and enforce them — by prosecuting parents like this one.

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