President Trump took a welcome if tepid step toward sensible gun reform two weeks ago, when he issued an order that banned bump stocks, the devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like automatic firearms.

The ruling essentially classifies these accessories as machine guns, effectively prohibiting them under federal law, and anyone who owns a bump stock can be prosecuted if they don’t surrender it to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives before March 26 or destroy it themselves.

Here’s what has happened since Trump announced the ban:

Bump stocks are still being purchased at dozens of websites, including Gunbroker.com for $149 or GunsAmerica.com for $199 to $299.

The ATF admitted it has no clue how many are in circulation – between 280,000 and 500,000 is the bureau’s guess – and it has no reason to assume that anyone will comply with the ban.

The NRA issued a strategic yawn that expressed its “disappointment” in the ruling, largely because Trump didn’t provide amnesty for those who purchased bump stocks while they were legal.

And another group, Gun Owners of America, filed suit and argued that the ban violates federal law, since “bump stocks do not qualify as machine guns under the federal statute” and therefore the ATF lacks the authority to regulate them in the first place – two assessments that most legal experts affirm.

So even though the president is trying to do the right thing here – knowing that banning bump stocks is objectively good policy since one was used to rain death on 58 people and injure 869 other concert-goers in Las Vegas – this is largely a symbolic and meaningless gesture until Congress passes a law that actually codifies the ban.

And while they’re at it, the legislature can pass gun reform measures that the president has enthusiastically supported in the past, such as expanding background checks and raising the age restriction for buying assault weapons from 18 to 21, which would have stopped the Parkland shooter from legally purchasing an AR-15-style rifle.

But bump stocks? Gun enthusiasts say they serve no purpose other than to spray as many bullets as possible in as short a time as possible. Before the Vegas massacre, it was a novelty item that had almost never been used in a crime. And unless you like to waste money blasting something into minuscule pieces without concern for accuracy, it makes little sense to use one: You can fire more than $100 in rounds in less than 10 seconds.

An expert from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade group, told National Public Radio that “it’s such a small, small niche. It’s really quite inconsequential to the overall scheme of things for the (gun) industry.”

Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-7th Dist.), who just joined the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, cut to the chase: “It’s ridiculous that we’re still even debating this,” he said of the bump stock ban. “It’s a needed step, but relatively meaningless to what needs to be done.”

So this is just working the margins. The CDC recently announced that 39,773 people died from firearms last year – that’s 12 per 100,000 people, the highest rate since 1996, driven mostly by an increase in suicides. A bump stock ban won’t change that.

The epidemic screams for real reform, starting with federal background check on all sales, notably the 20 percent that take place on the internet or at gun shows from unlicensed dealers. It will pass the House, but its journey is likely to end there if the president caves like a burnt soufflé again and doesn’t push the Senate into compliance.

Trump was on board last Feb. 28 – one week after Parkland – when he tweeted this cheery bromide: “We must now focus on strengthening Background Checks!”

We’ll never eradicate gun violence. But it can certainly be reduced. This is what civilized countries do.