In a particularly egregious display of insensitivity and arrogance, cocky celebrants of gun rights packed their weapons openly and legally this month on the streets of Newtown, Conn., where a shooter gunned down 20 schoolchildren and six adults last December. Similarly swaggering gun enthusiasts showed up this summer in Aurora, Colo., to protest new gun controls even as residents were commemorating the 12 people killed and 70 wounded last year when a gunman invaded a moviehouse.

The gun lobby’s triumphalism has only grown since Congress scuttled away from its clear obligation to provide greater gun safety. The vow of the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, to revive the debate seems forgotten as the Republicans drum up another fiscal-cliff melodrama. Too many politicians — in Congress and elsewhere — prefer to blindly salute the Second Amendment rather than face the appalling costs of gun mayhem in communities like Aurora, where the toll so far — apart from the loss of life — is $17 million and counting for the needs of survivors, according to a conservative estimate in The Denver Post.

Some of the recommended solutions have verged on the laughable. A few months ago, the administration issued a pamphlet advising houses of worship how to prepare for a gun assault. Last week came news that manufacturers of military battlefield armor have found a new sideline in bullet-resistant whiteboards for classroom use. The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is paying $60,000 for 200 18-by-20-inch high-tech tablets for its professors to take notes on — or to protect themselves with if an armed intruder shows up. One manufacturer said 100 grade schools in five states have already bought some of the classroom armor. Most pathetically, there are even bulletproof inserts for children’s backpacks.

The Obama administration, meanwhile, has been left to issuing limited executive orders that nevertheless highlight the depth of the problem. One will limit the return of American battlefield weapons that have been flooding the country; another stops the practice that lets felons and domestic abusers obtain arms by registering them through corporations and trusts. These gestures are modest compared with the overwhelming need for broad federal legislation. But they are certainly an improvement on pamphlets and whiteboards.