The fundamental issue here is: who's responsibility is it to keep people safe? The author, without really acknowledging it, makes the assumption that it is up to someone in authority to keep us safe. If you accept that premise, then yes, American gun control policy doesn't make sense.

Governments across the world have been steadily extending their remit into our personal lives and behaviour with the introduction of the welfare state, socialised healthcare and nationalised industries, always in the name of keeping us safe/well/employed. The assumption that "someone should do something about this" is so pervasive these days that it's hard to mentally snap out of it and say, why?

I'm no fan of guns[1] but in recent months I've come to understand the thinking behind the 2nd amendment, that government has to be kept in its place and that society must not give complete power to a small group at the centre. When you look at it that way, the hot coffee and the driving regulations are the things that don't make sense.

Whichever side of the gun control debate you're on, denouncing the other for not getting gets you nowhere. This is a debate about the proper role of government, not about guns or hot coffee per say.

[1] I'm British and so have no involvement in the whole US gun control debate, but am virtually genetically predisposed to thinking guns are strange and scary!